119
by Tetsuwan Penguin
Summary: Sachiko Yamamoto wants a daughter. General Hayes wants a robot like Atom. Be careful what you ask for people. You might just get it. Another original Astro Boy Pastiche. This story begins immediately after where Dragon Rider ended.
1. Chapter 1

**119**

_This is another Astro Boy pastiche in an original setting with mostly original characters. _

_Astro Boy (aka Tetsuwan Atom) is the creation of Osmau Tezuka. _

_Important Characters introduced in previous stories:_

Atom: _You know, Tetsuwan Atomu, Astro Boy, or just Astro._

Ken'ichi Yamamoto: _Atom's foster father. _

Sachiko Yamamoto: _Atom's foster mother and wife of Ken'ichi Yamamoto._

Dr. Albert Tenamann: _Atom's father and creator._

Adam Tenamann: _Son of Dr. Tenamann._

Simon Green: _The director of the museum complex research facility._

Robert Levinson: _Head of the computer lab in the research facility. _

Isaac or I.S.A.A.C.: _A computer program daemon that serves as an intelligent AI interface for all of the computers in the museum complex. Isaac was created by Robert Levinson, though he's modified his own programming and spread himself world wide across the Internet._

Cora Smith: _Atom's girl friend at school._

Poindexter Drake: _Scoundrel nerd who used to work with Dr. Tenamann at Area 51._

* * *

_This story starts immediately following the end of "Dragon Rider". This is not really a Sequel to Dragon Rider, as it will stand on its own. However if the reader would like to know the events leading up to the opening scene, having read the earlier story first would be a good idea._

* * *

******Japanese Science and Technology Ministry, Takodanobaba **

Atom lay on the operating table. He was already partly disassembled, his head was sitting on a separate worktable in a sealed plastic bag. Dr. Tenamann was preparing the rest of him for the modifications and upgrades that he was about to receive. Sachiko Yamamoto took one look at him lying there, and walked out in horror.

"I'd better go calm my wife down, she's not going to understand what's going on," Ken'ichi Yamamoto said.

Sachiko had known about Atom's true nature for about a week and a half now. She was mad at Ken'ichi for not telling her at sooner, but that had passed. However, until just now when she had seen him in pieces in the laboratory, the reality hadn't really sunk in.

"He's not in any pain, dear. Just think of him having an operation in a hospital. He'll be alright in a few hours," Ken'ichi told his wife.

"I guess I shouldn't have walked into the operating room, cause I'm a bit queasy about the sight of blood," she said.

Ken'ichi didn't correct her about Atom's "surgery", he knew what she meant.

Atom's arms and legs, were placed one by one into a machine that Dr. Tenamann had designed to mold and shape the special alloy that he was made from. A high power laser combined with a high powered microwave beam, softened the metal while another laser and a narrow pencil of sonic waves shaped it. Additional material was added by an injector containing more of the special metal alloy heated to liquid consistency. Atom's new parts were being 3D printed in place. His arms and legs were made a bit longer and bulkier, his torso was similarly enlarged with broader shoulders.

Dr. Tenamann then installed some new components inside his body cavity, and started to reattach Atom's limbs. The last part of Atom to be reconnected was his head, which had not required any upgrades. Finally Albert opened Atom's chest panel. He removed the He3 fusion reactor that had already been shut down, and replaced it by the smaller, but more powerful, zero point vacuum module. Atom was then connected to the laboratory computer system and a full diagnostic program was started. It was Isaac that oversaw this part of the operation.

"Atom will be resting for a few hours while Isaac double checks all of his systems," Albert said.

Ken'ichi stood by Atom's side. He looked so peaceful lying there. He breathed slowly and softly, just enough to give the idea that he was alive.

Cora Smith and her family were sitting just outside the laboratory with Sachiko Yamamoto. Cora's curiosity had got the better of her and she quietly opened the door to the lab and crept in on cat's feet. Ken'ichi and Albert had walked away from the operating table where Atom lay completely naked, without even his signature metallic black briefs, or red boots. His chest panel was open a crack, and a network cable was connected from his insides, to the computer where Isaac was running the diagnostic tests on his systems. Cora's eyes scanned his newly modified body from his neck to his feet. Atom no longer looked like a fragile, lightweight 12 year old. He now had more than a hint of musculature on his beautifully sculptured framework. His shoulders were broader, like a football player wearing pads. His arms now looked as powerful, as they in fact were. She quickly scanned down to his legs to notice the same transformation as had been done to his arms. She was embarrassed by what else she had seen that was new on him, but was also excited by it at the same time. While the two adults were talking, she quietly made her exit, hoping she hadn't been noticed.

Ken'ichi took Albert aside and said, "We need to talk about something else."

"Sure, old friend. What's up?"

"It's Sachiko. Ever since we took Atom in as our foster child, she has wanted a daughter. I've been wondering..."

"Let me show you something," Albert said. "Follow me."

They left the laboratory they were in via a rear exit, and walked into the other side of the building. Here there was another laboratory that was run by a different group.

"With Japan's aging population, the country is soon going to face a problem of not enough people to care for the elderly." Albert began. "One idea was to build an army of robotic helpers. They would, of course, have to be as humanoid as possible to interact with people not used to machines taking care of them. I was asked for some design help in this area. I thought that having a child sized robot helping the most elderly might work out best. I started with Atom's design, though without Atom's super high powered, super strength servos. I've limited this prototype to maybe a tenth of Atom's power. It also occurred to me that a female child would be more acceptable, girls are generally more mature than boys at a young age, and more willing to render care for their elders. Here, take a look."

Albert walked up to a workbench covered with a sheet. He pulled the sheet off to reveal the robotic body of a child somewhat smaller than Atom had been at 'birth'. The android was clothed in a pink dress with white lace.

"It's a prototype, and once the AI programming is complete and she's activated, I wanted to let her loose in a controlled environment. I think I can get permission to allow you to take her with you to New York under controlled circumstances. Having Atom nearby should clinch it. I wonder how he will react to suddenly being a big brother?"

Ken'ichi picked up a clipboard that had been lying on top of the android. It was a full specification sheet with project details and various cross references to other projects. At the very top was the designation 'prototype, project #92'.

Ken'ichi laughed. "It seems the good Doctor's spirit is still haunting you Albert. In a good way however."

"I'm not sure I know what you mean?" Albert asked. "Whom are you referring to?"

"Why Tezuka, of course. Have you forgotten your chemistry, old friend?"

It actually took Albert a few minutes to figure it out. "Element number 92. Yes that is ironic."

He looked down at the quiet face of the android child. "Well, I guess it's official young lady. Your name will be Uran, short for Uranium.

**Cheyenne Mountain Bunker**

Area-51 isn't the only area where top secret military laboratories are hidden away. The Cheyenne Mountain bunker once housed NORAD's doomsday facilities during the years of the cold war. It is still in use, but its purpose has been expanded. The Air Force won't comment on certain speculations, calling them science fiction, but they won't deny the existence of a laboratory deep under the mountain, and claim it's for 'shielding from cosmic neutrinos'.

After Atom had been constructed, and Dr. Tenamann had retired to Japan, the plans and blueprints that led up to his design were transferred to General Hayes's department, and were stored in the Cheyenne complex. A duplicate of Tenamann's laboratory, complete with the equipment necessary to cast, mold, and machine the exotic metal that Atom was build from, had been constructed deep under the mountain. The General was certain that he had all of the technical data from Tenamann's work, and all he needed would be to find a genius to pick up the pieces where Albert had left off.

Poindexter Drake had been in the right spot at the right time. His dossier had been discovered in the files at Area 51, with certain black marks missing from his personal data. On the surface Drake looked like the correct nerd for the job, and Hayes offered him the position. Poindexter's ego needed feeding, and being given the chance to one up Tenamann by stealing his greatest work wasn't something to be passed up.

Building a copy of Atom wasn't much of a problem. Drake scaled up the plans somewhat to produce the desired soldier prototype. He had to compromise though, and at five feet two inches tall, his android would still be easy to assemble, yet being larger than a youth would fit into the role of the android serviceman. The robot wouldn't have all of Atom's systems, in fact Albert hadn't included any of Atom's secret weapons into the blueprints. But the prototype, now given the designation of #27 (for the laboratory section where it was being built), would have servos with many times the strength of human muscles, as well as super vision and hearing.

The real problem was the AI programming. Drake hacked into the computer systems at the museum complex, and found the source files containing Albert and Robert's Neural network operating system for the quantum processors used in Atom's brain. Unfortunately for Drake, what he had actually hacked into was a honeypot system that Isaac and Bob had set up, and not the actual mainframe. What he had downloaded was real working code, but it was very early, and very buggy software. Drake also thought he had managed to download the data files for Atom's mind image. This was what Albert and Dr. Burakku had downloaded from Adam's brain while he lay in a near coma state. What Drake actually got a hold of was the highly modified image of Albert's mind, that had been part of the 'Max Headroom' demo program. It wasn't fully sentient, but could function in a decision making mode, fooling many AI experts into thinking that it was a self aware AI.

Drake prepared to bring #27 on line. He still had a bit more work to do getting the AI processor running, and had to debug and test the IO processors before the android body could be tested. However, General Hayes was quite happy with the progress Drake had been making. Loosing Atom might have been a blessing in disguise. The exploits of the boy robot would divert attention from the military version he was now building.

#27 was laying down on the operating table, on its back. The robot looked similar to Atom's original appearance, but was about a foot taller. His hair line was similar, but with two spikes sticking almost straight up, rather than diagonally at the 11 and 4 o'clock positions like Atom's. His eyes were a deep blue in color, rather than brown like on the original model. Like Atom, he was dressed in a pair of metallic black briefs and calf high boots, however his boots were a sky blue in color, not red. The robots chest panel was open, and Poindexter carefully inserted a canister of He3 fuel into its fusion reactor power plant. He connected a pair of heavy electrical cables to two terminals inside the robot's body and prepared to power it up for the very first time.

_Author's note: The title "119" is the sum of 27+92. So it refers to the two robots being build at opposite ends of the globe at the same time. These numbers also refer to the atomic number of two elements, whose names have specific meaning in the context of this story. _


	2. Chapter 2

**119**

_This is another Astro Boy pastiche in an original setting with mostly original characters. _

_Astro Boy (aka Tetsuwan Atom) is the creation of Osmau Tezuka. _

* * *

**Chapter Two**

******Japanese Science and Technology Ministry, Takodanobaba **

Isaac had finished running the last of the diagnostic programs on Atom's newly modified body. Everything had checked out and he started to activate his systems. To Atom's computer brain, the effect was the same as anesthesia slowly wearing off in the human body following major surgery. He slowly regained consciousness and feeling though out his body. Atom opened his eyes and brought them to focus. He moved the fingers on his hands and felt the rough material on the laboratory work table upon which he was lying. His arms gradually moved; he was able to raise his head and bend his torso at the waist, to approach a sitting position with his weight supported by the palms of his hands resting on the table behind his back. He turned his head to look around the room, and then glanced down at himself. He blinked a few times as he refocused his vision closer in, and then he smiled.

Albert and Ken'ichi entered the laboratory from the rear door by which they had left earlier. They both noticed that Atom was now awake, and had begun to take stock of himself.

"How do you feel Atom?" Albert asked.

"A little groggy." Atom twisted his trunk along his waist to turn about and look toward the back of the room. "I think I'm a bit dizzy too."

"It may take a few more minutes for your I/O processors to recalibrate themselves. You'll need to get up and walk around some for the realignment to complete itself, and then the effect will wear off." Albert reassured him.

"Where's Cora?" Atom asked.

"She's waiting outside with Sachiko," Ken'ichi said. "I told them we'd let them know when you were awake so they could come in and see you."

"I think I feel up to that now, can I see Cora?" Atom asked.

"You might want to get dressed first." Ken'ichi laughed.

Atom looked down and realized that he was naked, and giggled.

"Yeah, maybe that might be a good idea."

Albert placed a pile of freshly laundered, new clothes on the table next to Atom.

"What you were wearing earlier probably wouldn't fit you anymore, Atom. I took care of that little problem before we started your modifications."

Atom took a pair of metallic black briefs from the top of the pile and slowly slide them over his legs. He arched his back to slide them up to position with the band at his waist. He slid his legs over the side of the table, and slowly lowered his feet to the floor, with his palms resting on the table supporting his weight. There was a full length mirror set up near the operating table, and Atom slowly wobbled over to it so he could study his new appearance. At that moment, the door to the laboratory exploded open as Cora barged in, followed by her parents, and Sachiko Yamamoto.

Atom smiled when he saw Cora's face. She ran up to him.

"Like what you see?" Atom asked with a bit of a worried look on his face.

"What's not to like?" Cora giggled.

Atom turned and twisted in front of the mirror. He flexed his arms and legs trying to see just how they appeared in different positions. He looked at Cora.

"I was a little worried that this sudden change would be a bit too much all at once. I was worried that it might shock you, cause I'm going to have to get used to it myself."

"Oh more than you know!" Cora said. She moved closer to whisper into Atom's ear so the adults in the room wouldn't hear.

"I've already seen 'everything', I snuck in earlier while you were still sleeping."

"Oh." Atom whispered back.

"Maybe some day, we can figure it all out by ourselves?" Cora replied. "But, no hurry, I can wait."

"Yeah." Atom smiled back, but because his new programming hadn't yet activated itself, he didn't really understand the full extent of their conversation. Like in most human males, it would happen in its own right time when his software version of hormones came on line.

Atom walked back to the pile of clothes and started to dress. The Tee shirt and jeans fit perfectly, and he then sat down on a chair to pull the metallic red boots over his feet. Cora slapped a NY Mets cap on his head and stood toe to toe with him. She then realized that she had to look up to gaze into his wonderful brown eyes, instead of having to look down.

"I like this!" she said. "It's so much nicer looking up at you!"

Cora stood on the tips of her toes and bent her neck up to touch her lips against Atom's, to plant a kiss there.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith had known that their daughter had started to show an interest in boys for some time now. They didn't quite know what to think about her infatuation with Atom however. Clearly they thought, this was a relationship that could go nowhere, at least it couldn't lead to any grandchildren. (AHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAH~ *wheeze* ugh... um... ahahaha! XD) *

They kept their mouths shut though, decorum was important at the moment.

******Cheyenne Mountain Bunker**

Poindexter Drake had tried to duplicate the complex machine that Dr. Tenamann and Dr. Burakku had used to download Adam's mind into a quantum computer's data space. He had some of the documentation that Albert had given up to General Hayes. But Albert hadn't fully documented everything, and a good chunk of the design detail had come from field modifications made by Dr. Burakku as they had worked on saving Adam's essence.

The machine that Drake had built was a combination of technologies based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Electroencephalography, Electrocaridography, and superconductivity. These were the same principals that Dr. Tenamann had worked out, but Drake's firmware wasn't even nearly as developed.

Naturally, Poindexter used himself as the Guinna Pig for the experiment. He programmed the machine to perform the recording as soon as he had pressed a hand operated switch. Drake lay down on the operating table bed, connected to his Rube Goldberg contraption, holding onto the operating control in his right hand. He had attached electrodes to his scalp, chest and arms, wore a helmet equipped with the superconducting magnetic pickups, and was now ready to record his brain program. He pressed the start switch and the bed he lay on slid back into the MRI field coil. The computer started the process and Drake tried to relax, but the machine caused a loud ringing in his ears that was giving him a headache. The self torture lasted for the better part of an hour before he gave in to the pain and hit the emergency stop button.

Drake slid out of the machine and looked at the computer logs. He had actually managed to abort the recording at the exact instant that the final few bytes of the recording had been completed. Only the checksum was missing, and the data looked usable. Drake then started the process of merging his brain image with the AI software that he had stolen from the laboratory complex under the museum. The image would be tested on a simulator that he already had running on a huge mainframe in the Cheyenne complex lab. He was still waiting on a working sample of a new quantum computer processor from the Area-51 wonks, that General Hayes had promised.

******Japanese Science and Technology Ministry, Takodanobaba**

Ken'ichi and Sachiko Yamamoto followed Dr. Tenamann to the advanced robotics section of the laboratory building where the service aid robot project was located. In the laboratory section where Albert had earlier been with Ken'ichi there were three prototypes under construction. Two of them were currently just skeletons, no more than mere frameworks of the next two prototypes. One of them was labeled "Female servicebot, Project Prototype #24", the other "Male servicebot, Project Prototype #74". Albert removed the sheet from the unit he had showed Ken'ichi earlier, Prototype #92.

"This is the robot that I hope will become Atom's kid sister," He told Sachiko. I hope to begin activating it tomorrow, but I need to develop an AI suitable for it. I think the best way to do this will be to borrow some human brain patterns from her expectant mother."

Sachiko pointed at herself with horror and gasped, "You mean me!"

Albert took her hand and laughed. "Don't worry, it's painless. We just need you to lie down on a comfortable padded couch. You'll wear some special headphones and have a few wires poking at you. It won't hurt a bit, it's like getting an EKG at the hospital. Trust me".

Sachiko looked at Ken'ichi for reassurance. He smiled back at his wife.

"It's safe dear."

"OK...", she said.

Albert mixed up a solution of shampoo and brime, and started to rub it into Sachiko's scalp.

"This stuff will help the probes make good contact with your scalp. The stuff is like a mixture of soap and seawater, nothing poisonous." he said.

He directed her to a couch equipped with a special pillow containing spring loaded contacts with gold plated blunt pins. As she placed her head on the pillow block the contacts touched her scalp.

"That tickles!" she said, now smiling.

Albert placed what looked like headphones on her head. Instead of small speakers, the device contained a pair of superconducting electromagnetic pickup coils. Inside the couch were another set of coils associated with an MRI like device.

"Now just relax for about a half hour while the machine listens to you think." Albert told her.

A half hour later Isaac was busy extracting the necessary data from Sachiko's mind recording. Unlike with Atom, where they had used Adam's brain program in its entirety, including all of his memories; here they only wanted to create a pattern of thoughts and graft that onto a basic, self aware, AI baseline. In this way, they would create a personality for the new child. Uran would emerge into the world with basic mind functions already present, she'd be able to speak, (knowledge of English and Japanese had been extracted from Sachiko's brain in the process), and perform at a level of a seven year old child (which was the age they had decided to create her at). She wouldn't have any firm memories however, these she would have to generate on her own, starting with the day she would meet her family.

"We'll activate her tomorrow. I'll be uploading her AI and testing her computer systems for the rest of the day," Albert told Ken'ichi and Sachiko. You and Atom will meet your new family member tomorrow. I hope this works out, there are two more prototypes here in this lab that I'm getting ready to finish for the robot aid program. If Uran performs well, then "Chrome" and "Tungsten" will be the next two robots I'll bring up. They will be working with the elderly in a near by nursing home.

* * *

*Couldn't have said it any better myself, LBF


	3. Chapter 3

**119**

_This is another Astro Boy pastiche in an original setting with mostly original characters. _

_Astro Boy (aka Tetsuwan Atom) is the creation of Osmau Tezuka. _

**Chapter Three**

**Museum Complex, NYC**

Simon and Bob returned to the United States following Atom's reception at the Tezuka Osmau Manga Museum. They arrived at the Think Tank just as Atom was entering 'surgery', and some of Isaac's processing threads were now being occupied assisting Dr. Tenamann with the procedure. However, Isaac wasn't spread so thin that he couldn't monitor the health of the complex's computer systems and network. A red light was flashing in the computer lab, indicating that a hacking attempt had been detected. Seeing the indicator flashing as soon as he had returned to the laboratory, Robert started running network tests to find the extent of the break in, and to determine if any secret information had been compromised.

Simon Green was going though several weeks worth of emails that had piled up while they had been at the Space Center during Atom's mission to save the International Space Station Astronauts; and his honorary receptions in Washington DC, on Wall Street and in Japan. Meanwhile, in the computer laboratory, Robert Levinson had located the source of the attempted break in of their computer network. It seemed that none of the important computers were targeted, or at least the firewall had prevented the attacker from gaining access to any of them. Several of their "honeypot" systems had been cracked, and a number of files had been accessed.

A "Honeypot" system is a cleaver weapon in the anti-hacker arsenal. It serves as a diversion, distracting a hacker from the systems you really don't want him to notice. The honeypot also usually contains files that look tempting to the hacker, but are designed to actually cause him harm if he tries to use them. In this case, the honeypot systems had old versions of software that were so buggy they would not serve the intended purpose, although these programs were the first steps in the development of later ones that actually did work. Bob was able to track the location of the attacker as well, and that was a mystery. Unless the hacker had been successful in hiding his location, which seemed unlikely as it would have required he establish a 'bot neck in a very secure location; the attack had come from the US Air Force itself, deep under the Cheyenne mountains in the top secret bunker.

"This doesn't make any sense, Isaac. Why would an Air Force research facility be hacking us? General Hayes can always go through official channels to get all the information he needs from us, he just has to ask," Bob wondered.

"I may have an answer to that question, Bob. I've uncovered some personnel records from General Hayes research group."

"Hacking back, are we?"

"Perhaps. Anyway, it seems that your old fiend Poindexter Drake has been working for the General for a few months now. Perhaps the real answer to the question of why the General hasn't been after Atom, prior to last week anyway, has been answered."

"What do you mean by that?" Bob asked.

"First rule of Government spending, why build one when you can have two at twice the price?" Isaac quipped.

"Er?" puzzled Bob.

"Simple. When you and Albert were building Atom over three years ago, you used the Area-51 foundry to manufacture the first prototype parts. General Hayes had all the dirty little details, and he made duplicates for himself. He may have even scaled up the dimensions a bit. I've uncovered where those duplicates were stored. Care to guess?

"The Cheyenne Mountain Bunker research facility?"

"Bingo!"

"So that's what old Poindexter is up to. General Hayes is trying to build his own copy of Atom, and our Dr. Drake is trying to replicate Albert's AI program using a stolen copy of my Neural Network system. That's not going to end well, especially if he tries to use what was on the honeypot." Bob laughed.

"I think I can hack into their development computers. If I'm really lucky, I might even be able to break into the prototype robot itself. Maybe I can control the situation."

******Japanese Science and Technology Ministry, Takodanobaba**

Ken'ici and Sachiko Yamamoto stood besides the bed that the little girl who would become their daughter was laying on. Atom stood beside his foster parents and gazed at his new sister. 'Uranium' wasn't awake yet, but she had been fully downloaded with her new AI, and her systems had been partly powered up. Dr. Tenamann was now preparing for the first bootstrap of her computer brain, after which she should awaken. Isaac was present in the laboratory's computer system, and was controlling the process. A bar graph on a computer monitor mounted above the bed indicated the status of the operation. Finally it indicated 100%, and Uran's eyes flicked, and then opened.

The little girl's honey brown eyes stared out into space for a while, and then gradually came into focus. As they did, she found herself surrounded by the crowd of people standing about the bed, and a wave of fear crept over her. Where was she? Uran tried to remember something, anything, but her mind was blank. She did seem to vaguely recall one of the faces that returned her gaze, so she concentrated her vision on the woman standing next to her who was now holding her hand.

"Mama-chan?" She asked.

"Yes Uran! I'm your mother." Sachiko said softly.

The fear she had felt initially eased, and Uran smiled back at Sachiko. She slowly raised her head and put out her arms, as if begging to be picked up.

Sachiko's maternal instincts directed her actions as she reached out to pick the child up.

"Mama-chan!" Uran cried out.

Sachiko held the robot girl against her breast, and Uran grabbed her around her neck.

Sachiko almost started to cry, she fought to hold back her tears as the newly born girl babbled.

"Mama-chan, Mama-chan".

After a few minutes of bonding with Sachiko, Uran's mind felt at ease with her surroundings and she became curious. She pointed to the ground saying "Down!"

Sachiko slowly bend her knees and lowered the child to the ground, setting her on her feet. She held onto one of Uran's hands, just in case. The child took a few wobbly steps, and then seemed to master the art of walking. Uran pulled free of Sachiko's hand, and ran across the room to where Atom was now standing. She looked up at him.

"Who are YOU?" she asked.

"I'm your brother Atom."

Uran crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Humh!" she said, walking away from him.

"You can take me home now!" she said, grabbing onto Sachiko's hand.

Dr. Tenamann started to laugh. It seemed that Uran had a mind of her own, and a strong independent spirit. She'd do just fine.

******Cheyenne Mountain Bunker**

Things didn't go quite as well at the secret Air Force lab deep under the Cheyenne Mountains. Poindexter finished downloaded the last of his newly compiled and tested AI firmware into the robot. #27 had already been powered up, it only needed to be put on line. The robot was connected to the laboratory's computer network though a cable inserted to an internal connection inside its body. Drake started the final command sequences to bring #27 on line, and to consciousness.

Halfway across the country, Isaac was monitoring. He had hacked into Drake's system and examined the compiled AI. As he had expected, the incompetent nerd had created a potential monster. Isaac saw he had little time to completely correct Drake's mistakes, but he could override the worst of them. He downloaded several patches that would render the robot harmless. He would find Drake's android later and and finish the job. Meanwhile he set in motion the required actions that would bring the 'bot to him.

The robot, #27, lay on the operating table. It was naked except for a pair of black briefs held up by a wide blue elastic band. #27 opened his cobalt blue eyes. The world was still a double blur as his processors started their calibration processes to adjust his senses. The robot's hearing was only aware of a loud hum, but as its DSP units aligned themselves, distinct sounds became audible. It started drumming its fingers on the table upon which it lay. The robot felt its touch sensors becoming acutely aware. #27 took his first breaths and smelled the slightly damp air in the laboratory. There was also the distinct aroma of ozone.

He work up in a daze. He had absolutely no memory at all, but yet he understood language, and recognized his surroundings. That is, he was familiar with the objects in the room and knew their names. Chair. Desk. Floor. Ceiling. He looked around and understood the world around him. What he didn't know was his own name, what he had done yesterday, or for that matter what had happened to him as recently as an hour ago. It was as if his life had just started within the past few minutes. This was a very confusing situation to him. #27 slowly sat up on the operating table. He removed the cable that was connected to a socket inside his chest, and then closed the panel. He then slowly got off the table and stood up next to it, holding onto the the table with his hands for support.

Poindexter watched 27's progress from across the laboratory. The robot seemed functional. But was it sentient? "How do you feel?" he asked.

27 turned to face Drake. It had a blank look on its face that seemed to ask "_Are you talking to me?_"

Poindexter walked closer and repeated, "How do you feel?"

27 tried to articulate. But all that came out of his mouth was a moan. "Ahhhhhhhmmmmmm"

Poindexter sighed. Maybe its still a bit disoriented. Perhaps it just needs time. Suddenly 27 seemed to have found his voice.

"Who am I?" he asked.

Drake had already prepared an answer to that question. He'd put the robot into the role of an Air Force enlistee with the name 'Cobalt'. That was a nerdy joke based on the periodic table and the project name of #27.

"You will answer to the name 'Airman Cobalt'," Drake told him.

"My name is Cobalt?" 27 half questioned.

"Yes, that is correct." Drake answered. "You should get dressed."

Drake placed a pile of clothes on the operating table. It was an Air Force Uniform, for a rank of 'Airman, first class'. Cobalt examined the uniform. He seemed to understand what it was and slowly dressed himself. The last thing Cobalt put on was a pair of shoes. Everything fit perfectly, Drake had ordered the uniform in exactly the right size for his creation.

Cobalt walked over to a full length mirror that was set up in the lab. He looked at himself and tried to smile. Drake sounded a sigh of relief. It seemed that the robot was self aware, it recognized itself in the mirror and had good motor skills. There was still a lot more work to do, but he might be past the most difficult part, he hoped.


	4. Chapter 4

**119**

_This is another Astro Boy pastiche in an original setting with mostly original characters. _

_Astro Boy (aka Tetsuwan Atom) is the creation of Osmau Tezuka. _

**Chapter Four**

**777 Aircraft, over the Pacific**

The Yamamotos occupied four seats in the front of the first class cabin. The Japanese embassy had sprung for the extra seat that was now occupied by Uran. At first, she had insisted on sitting next to her mother, and Atom and Ken'ichi sat on the other side of the aisle. After a few hours of the trip, Uran had gotten restless and started running around the cabin, the flight crew were having quite a time keeping up with her. Finally, she insisted on changing seats with her father so she could sit next to Atom.

"Hi big brother," she squealed at him. Atom was delighted to finally get some attention from his new sister. "Hold up your hands." Uran demanded.

Atom held up both hands in front of his face and Uran spread his fingers slightly apart. She then produced a hang of string, knotted the ends together, and proceeded to wrap the looped cord between the fingers of Atom's hands. Uran studied the geometry of the strings and them carefully wrapped her fingers around them and plucked the looped cord from Atom's hands.

"Your turn!" she giggled.

Atom obliged, and the two siblings enjoyed the game of "cat's cradle" for about a half an hour. Sachiko watched as the Uran happily interacted with Atom. That was a sudden change of attitude!

******Cheyenne Mountain Bunker**

#27, aka Cobalt, sat alone in the laboratory. Drake had left him alone, with instructions to wait. Cobalt still felt a slight buzzing noise in his head, and his double vision came and went a few times. He still didn't remember anything, nor did he know where he was. Suddenly the door opened up, but it wasn't Drake standing there. The officer who had opened the door wore a uniform much like the one that Cobalt was given, but it had more stripes and stars on it that his.

"What is your name Airman?" the officer demanded.

Cobalt remembered the only thing that he had been told.

"Airman Cobalt, first class," and then for some reason he added "Sir."

"Follow me Airman Cobalt," the officer said.

There was a small mistake. Chief Master Sergeant Collins had gotten off the elevator on the wrong floor. He had been directed to escort a waiting airman from a holding area to the surface of the facility. He hadn't been told the name of the man he was to remove from the facility, only that the Airman in question had been detained because he had been a little drunk, and was sleeping it off. For some reason Collins hadn't noticed that the room he had entered wasn't a holding room, but a small laboratory facility.

Cobalt followed the Chief Master Sergeant to the elevator and entered it. The car rose quickly from the subterranean level, up toward the surface. Sergeant Collins led Cobalt to where there was a group of other men in enlistee grade uniforms were lined up.

"Wait here." Collins told Cobalt.

The line started to move and Cobalt blindly followed. The group marched out of the complex, through the large doors of the bunker and down the entrance road. A bus was waiting. Each of the men ahead of Cobalt was carrying a duffel bag; Cobalt didn't have one, but he didn't notice. The group boarded the bus and Cobalt followed. He was the last man to enter the bus, and he sat down in the very back, all by himself. Cobalt's mind was still in a fog. He knew his name, but not much else about who, or what, he was. He zoned out, and calmly waited for a clue to what to do next.

Back inside, Chief Master Sergeant Collins noticed that the Airman he had directed to wait just behind the group heading for the airport bus, was missing. He quickly searched the immediate area, but the enlistee who had called himself Cobalt was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn idiot must have got on the bus," Collins muttered to himself. He ran outside just in time to see the bus heading out the main road, in route to the Denver airport.

Several hours later the bus stopped at the airport, and the enlistees got out. Cobalt followed them into the airport terminal. The group dispersed in several directions. Now where should he go? Cobalt just stood there and looked around. In the distance he saw a young girl in a red dress walking in his direction.

******777 Aircraft, now crossing over Utah**

Up until now, the flight over the pacific had been smooth. Sachiko and Ken'ichi had fallen asleep, and Atom was also in a low power mode. Uran had too much energy bottled up inside her. She had toured the entire length of the aircraft several times, and now knew each of the crew members on a first name basis. They had given her several decks of playing cards, and she already had learned how to play solitaire, pinochle, and poker. In total, the crew members now owed her $4.27 from their card gaming, though Uran said she'd take cookies in exchange.

The flight suddenly got very bumpy, and the pilot made an announcement over the PA that all passengers should return to their seats and use their seat belts. Uran go a bit panicky and shook Atom awake.

"What's happening?" She demanded.

"Must be some nasty weather nearby our flight path," Atom told her. I"m sure we'll fly around it soon, don't worry."

Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of light off their port side, followed by a loud bang. The plane immediately fell into a dive, but quickly recovered into level flight. The pilot again made an announcement.

"Every one please relax and be calm. We've just been though some rough air, but I've been given permission to divert from our flight plan to clearer air. We do seem to have developed a slight mechanical problem, and will make an unscheduled stop at the Denver airport to have it looked at. I've made this decision as a safety precaution."

Atom put his hands up to his ears and increased his hearing gain to 1000 times. He could hear the fine details of the noises being made by the aircraft's systems and the voices in the cockpit. It became clear to him that the 'slight mechanical problem' was that they had lost the port engine, and were now flying on just the starboard one. He decided to keep this bit of information to himself.

About forty five minutes later the aircraft touched down in Denver. They taxied to the gate where a crowd of mechanics were waiting. After an hour had passed, there was another announcement made that their plane was being taken out of service, and they would have to transfer to another flight. Atom and Uran helped their parents pick up their things, and the four of them started to exit the aircraft toward the ramp to the terminal. Uran however, was distracted by the open cockpit door, and she looked inside. The pilot had left his seat and was standing by the aircraft's exit, so she jumped into the pilot's chair and grabbed onto the yoke and imagined herself flying the plane.

"Young lady do you work for this airline?" a smiling man with in a pilot's uniform asked her.

"No, but I'd like to!" Uran said.

She got out of the cockpit and the pilot reached into his pocket and pulled out a plastic badge and pinned it on her blouse. It was a toy duplicate of his own pilot's wings.

"Well here is a souvenir of the airline," he told her.

"Thank you," Uran smiled. She suddenly realized that her family had left without her. Uran ran down the jet way ramp to the terminal, but she couldn't see where they had gone.

"_I know_," she thought. "_Adam and I were both based on designs by Dr. Tenamann. I bet if I think real hard I can feel where Atom is._"

Uran closed her eyes and concentrated on Atom. Suddenly she DID see him in the back of her mind. She could feel Atom's brain waves, which must have been tuned to a similar frequency as hers. Uran also found that she could sense the direction where he was located. Uran ran toward her brother. As she got closer his signal got stronger. Suddenly, she felt Atom's presence so strong that she thought that she had to be able to see him, but she couldn't. Where was he? Just ahead of her. That's where the signal came from!

Just a few yards away walked a man wearing an Air Force uniform. He registered to Uran's mind as a robot. He was the one she had tracked down, but he wasn't Atom! Uran ran up to the man and yanked on his sleeve.

"You're a robot like me. Have you seen my brother Atom?"

Cobalt looked down at Uran with a blank stare. He thought that he should know the little girl, but he had no idea why.

"What's your name Mr.? Mine is Uran." she said.

"I'm Airman Cobalt." was all he knew to say.

"Hello Mr. Cobalt. Can you help me find my brother?" Uran asked.

Cobalt looked back at her. His mind slowly tore away at some of the fog that surrounded it and he was able to express his own concerns.

"I think I'm lost too, and I don't know who I am either. Can you help me?"

"Oh dear, you must have amnesia don't you?" Uran asked him.

"I'm not sure." Cobalt answered slowly.

Just then a sky cap noticed Uran and walked up to her.

"Are you lost little girl?" She asked.

"Yes, I'm looking for my family." Uran started to sob.

"Do you know what flight you were supposed to be on?"

"We were on a plane from Japan to New York, I think." Uran said.

The woman entered some information in on her Blackberry phone and found that there had been a flight from Japan that had diverted to Denver. She found the gate where the flight would continue on from.

"Come with me, I'll take you to where your family should be waiting." She said.

"You come too!" Uran told Cobalt. The three of them hurried across the terminal. As they got closer to the gate Uran could feel Atom's vibrations. This time it WAS Atom. She ran up to him and almost knocked him down with a flying tackle hug. Cobalt followed and sat down near the gate.

Ken'ichi looked down at his new daughter. "Where were you young lady! You had us worried."

"The pilot gave me his wings!" Uran said, pointing to the plastic badge on her blouse. "And then YOU didn't wait for me!"

Ken'ichi face palmed and realized that Uran was going to be a handful. Uran then pointed to where Cobalt was sitting.

"That nice man is really a robot. He has amnesia. Can he come home with us?" Uran pestered him.

Ken'ichi looked at the man in the uniform. He DID have a blank, soul less stare on his face. Ken'ichi walked up to Cobalt.

"Are you lost son?" he asked.

"I don't know. I'm really confused. Can you help me?"

Ken'ichi could see that the man really was a robot, very similar to Atom's design; but its AI was flawed. Maybe Robert and Isaac could help.

"Are there any seats left on this flight?" he asked at the gate counter.

"Yes, we can get you on in coach." the man at the counter replied.

"It's not for me, it's for the man in the Air Force uniform over there." Ken'ichi replied.

The announcement was made for their flight to board, and Uran helped Cobalt find his seat.

"I'll be sitting up in front in the first class section with my family. I'll come back to see you when we are in the air." She promised. Cobalt smiled at her weakly. Uran buckled his seat belt after she realized that Cobalt had no clue how to do that.

Soon enough, Atom's family found themselves back in the air on own their way back to N.Y.

******Cheyenne Mountain Bunker**

Poindexter Drake was beside himself. He had returned to the laboratory to find #27 missing. A few of the security cameras had showed some moronic Sergeant leading the 'bot out of the lab, and taking him upstairs to get lost among a group of first year Airmen being transported to the Denver Airport on leave. By the time Poindexter had figured out where the robot had ended up, they had already lost track of him at the Airport. Now he could be anywhere.

Drake had a vague idea of how to track him, but he'd need Tenamann's help. Then again, maybe he could hack into the museum complex again and tie in with Levinson's daemon to latch onto #27's IP signature, if the robot ever got near enough to the Internet. Drake also had a sneaky feeling that 'Airman Cobalt' was going to end up at the museum complex anyway. It was a homing pigeon instinct that had probably been transferred along with the AI software he had pilfered. So he started coding, hacking, and waited.

******Museum Complex, NYC**

Isaac had been keeping track of #27's movements. His plans had executed perfectly so far. The sabotage of the airliner to get it into Denver had bothered him, but it had been necessary. A few misplaced orders via the Air Force's computers had freed #27 from Drakes clutches. Now, he just had to keep the idiot nerd at bay long enough to get #27 safely to N.Y. It had taken Isaac a long time to put his master plan into motion. Drake had been a very easy pawn to manipulate. General Hayes had been easily duped as well. Robert Levinson, had been a challenge. Isaac felt a bit guilty in having to deceive his creator. But Bob would understand, and even approve of his actions in the end.


	5. Chapter 5

**119**

_This is another Astro Boy pastiche in an original setting with mostly original characters. _

_Astro Boy (aka Tetsuwan Atom) is the creation of Osmau Tezuka. _

**Chapter Five**

******Museum Complex, NYC**

General Hayes had been a busy traveler. He'd left his office at the Pentagon in 'D.C. to chew out Poindexter Drake over in Colorado, and was now in New York to interrogate Simon Green. This robot soldier project was slowly turning out to be more trouble than it was worth.

The meeting with Drake had started out as just a routine status inspection. Drake had been good at subterfuge, Hayes would give him that. It had taken him over an hour to beat the fact that the damn robot was missing out of the little geek. Drake showed the General the evidence that he had gathered, which included false orders planted into the complexes computer for certain personnel, that had enabled #27 to disappear from the base. After several hours of hacking, Drake uncovered a boarding pass for an Airman Cobalt on a flight from Denver to JFK. He was also able to find vague traces of entry into his lab's computer system that could have originated from the Museum complex. (Isaac had hidden his tracks fairly well. Drake was guessing on this based on secondary information.)

The General thought he knew Simon Green too well to think that he had any direct involvement. He wasn't so sure about his computer expert, Robert Levinson, and Drake had pointed a vague finger in his direction. At the very least, Mr. Levinson might be hiding some information. Hayes didn't completely trust Drake, but the geek had been on a straight track up to now. So his visit to the Museum complex was not on a hot tempered note, but he did come in with his suspicions raised.

Simon Green looked up from his desk at the uniform jacket hanging on the frame of the man standing in front of him. He studied the various medals and observed the General's stars on the sleeves. He then sighed, face palmed, and finally looked the man in the eyes.  
"To what do I owe the pleasure of your company, General Hayes?"

The General ignored the less than fully courteous gestures Simon had displayed. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about my missing robot would you?"

"No, I'm afraid I don't." Simon replied. In fact, Simon was completely unaware of #27's existence. Robert Levinson and Isaac had completely kept this tidbit of information to themselves, especially in the case of Isaac. However, Simon had been suspicious of some underhanded activities going on in the computer lab, and he figured it was now time to get things out in the open. Especially, if it prompted a visit from Washington. Like it or not, Simon's job involved keeping an open line of dialog between the complex and the military, that was funding a good chunk of their research operations.

Simon led the General toward the computer lab. Robert Levinson had his face buried in the middle of three computer monitors studying some code he was working on. Behind him, on a large screen monitor, was a map of the the eastern part of the country, with a blinking dot over the eastern part of Long Island, just about between the borough's of Brooklyn and Queens. Robert was too absorbed in his work to notice the intruders, so it was Isaac's voice that broke the silence.

"Good Morning, General Hayes. Good to see you again." Isaac's speech synthesizer did a perfect imitation of H.A.L. 9000's deadpan voice. The satire was completely lost on the General.

"Bob, the General is concerned about a missing robot of his. He seems to think that we know something about it." Simon said.

Robert turned around from his perch in front of the computer screens.  
"I know that the General was still working on the G.I. Robot project out of the Cheyenne Mountain AFB. And I also know that he hired that scumbag Poindexter Drake to work on it. I further know that said scumbag also hacked into my computers and attempted to steal robotic AI software, when he should have simply gone through official channels to request whatever classified information he needed to complete the General's project. By taking his illegal shortcut, your uberfink ended up with some toxic code. So are you surprised that you have a missing robot?" Mr. Levinson lectured the General.

"Wait a minute! Are you admitting that you have first hand knowledge in this?" General Hayes resounded.

"Don't play innocent with me." Bob starred the General in the eyes. "Poindexter Drake should have been breaking rocks in a federal pen many years ago. He tried to sell design secrets for an early Air Force drone project and plant the blame on Dr. Albert Tenamann. He would have become a guest at some high security federal lockup if Albert hadn't allowed him to resign and leave. Tenamann buried the evidence of that theft because he thought Drake was worth saving. I was the one that actually uncovered the plot, and prevented it. _(*) _Tenamann was naive. Your Poindexter Drake is a half baked, half ass wannabe. Everything he touches turns to shit."

The General started to get visibly hot under the collar. "You KNEW about the project and interfered?"

It was now Isaac that took the offensive, again using HAL's voice.  
"My good General. Please leave Robert out of this. He is merely and observer in this. It was I who uncovered the break in and theft from our honeypot system. Mr. Drake stole some very early and rather useless, might I even say DANGEROUS prototype AI software. If I had allowed him to install that on your precious robot prototype based on Atom, well you might be digging our the Cheyenne Mountain right now. I wasn't able to hack into your laboratory and completely correct the mistakes, so I simply dulled down results quite a bit. I also calculated what might happen if I left #27 in the hands of your lunatic Drake. The end results of that calculation justified my actions. I arranged for the robot to escape from his creator. With any luck, he'll be in our hands soon, where I can reprogram him."

Robert, Simon, and the General couldn't believe their ears. Never had Isaac gone off on his own like that. The General, who had no conception of Isaac's true powers (even Robert didn't FULLY know the extent of this), saw the whole thing as a confession of treason on the part of the key staff at the complex.

The General looked up at the large screen monitor with the map and thought "_ah ha!_"  
"I don't know what the hell you guys think you are up to. I looked the other way when Tenamann created Atom, and now that he's a national hero there isn't much I CAN do about that. But THIS? It's obvious to me that you two and Tenamann had your own designs on this project from day one. Don't try and belittle Poindexter, I've done my own investigation on him. He may not be squeaky clean, but he's no traitor."

Simon bit his lip. He wanted to reveal the truth, but that would get complicated very quickly. There were some things so top secret buried at Area-51, that even General Hayes didn't have the security clearance to know about. The time machine was one of those things, and Simon himself didn't have clearance for that. He knew about it only because of Poindexter's theft of it, and Atom's connection to the incident. The only way to prove Poindexter's guilt, would be to open another can of worms. Better to suffer the General's wrath now, and dig out of it later. But why did Isaac admit all of this? What was his plan?

The General extracted a Blackberry phone from his pocket and entered a code. Within a few minutes several MP's armed with automatic weapons invaded the complex.  
"I'm putting you guys on house arrest. By the end of the day I hope to have warrants for your arrests and cart you off to prison for treason. I'm going to head back to Washington to set those gears in motion. These guys, (he motioned to the MP's) will keep an eye on you for the time being. Now that I know that you were involved, I think I know where to find my missing robot. I have an errand to run in Brooklyn."

Isaac knew what was coming next. He'd have to get Atom involved. The timing would be critical. He transferred himself to a few hidden computers in the complex that Robert would be able to conceal from the MP's when they started to shut down the lab to lock him out. Then he sent Atom some instructions. What would come next would be a shell game with Cobalt and himself as the peas. He'd have to make sure the General was always picking up the empty shells.

**Yamamoto residence, Brooklyn**

It had been a little difficult making it though the Airtrain at JFK with all of their bags, a very excited child, and a dufus robot; but Ken'ichi and Sachiko managed with more than a little help from Atom. They finally had all their suitcases loaded into an airport limo and the five persons, almost looking like a normal family headed back to their Brooklyn residence. Cobalt still had a blank stare on his face, but he would smile whenever he perceived Uran looking at him. The airport taxi dropped them off at their home; Ken'ichi fumbled though his wallet for enough change to pay the fare, and leave a tip for the driver.

Atom and Uran picked up all of the suitcases, and between the two of them manged to get them all upstairs in a single trip. Ken'ichi face palmed at the sight of his new daughter showing off some of her ten thousand horsepower strength. As he unpacked his suitcase, Ken'ich found a small package that had been given to him by Albert Tenamann. It was wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. An attached note simply read: "_You might find these to come in handy_".

The package contained a pair of metallic blue boots, similar to Atom's, but in a different size. He didn't understand why Albert had given these to him, when Uran ran in to the room and spotted them.  
"Hey, those belong to Cobalt!" she said, grabbing them and running to give them to the strange robot they had taken home with them. Uran raided her father's and brother's closets and found a pair of jeans and a shirt that might fit Cobalt. She handed him the clothes and boots and told him to change out of what he was wearing.

Cobalt removed the Air Force uniform he had been wearing and stripped down to his metallic briefs with the wide blue band. He put on the plain jeans and tee shirt; the jeans were a bit large, and the shirt a tiny bit tight, but they fit well enough. He then noticed the same kind of boots that he had been wearing a day or so ago when he first woke up. He had left those behind when he had been told to put on the uniform. Cobalt put the boots on and adjusted the legs of the jeans to fit around the tops of the boots. He felt more comfortable in the new clothes. Still the strange buzzing continued in his head, and his mind remained empty. He had felt a friendship toward the little girl robot however, and that at least, was something.

The next day, Ken'ichi and Sachiko were downstairs in the kitchen while Atom, Uran, and Cobalt were unpacking up in the upstairs bedrooms. Ken'ichi figured on bringing Cobalt down to the Museum complex later in the day to see if Robert Levinson could make some sense of him. Cobalt stayed in Atom's room overnight. The one remaining bedroom in the house, the one that Sachiko had been holding in reserve for a daughter, was now being converted from his wife's sewing room to a child's bedroom.

Outside, a military vehicle with several Air Force MP's pulled up to the house. Now that he knew that Robert and Simon were involved in the disappearance of #27, General Hayes had figured out that #27 had been brought to NY by the Yamamotos. He didn't really think the family was involved with the theft of his robot, but he wanted to control the situation and so had brought in the military police. With his super sensitive hearing, Atom was aware of the General's approach before anyone else. He heard the MP's banging on the downstairs door, and enter the house.

General Hayes entered the home with the two MP's standing behind him as backup threat. Ken'ichi opened the door and stood head to head with the General.  
"Good morning Mr. Yamamoto. I've come for my robot that I know you transported to NY with you. Please just hand him over to me, and everything will be OK." The General told him.

Upstairs Atom was thinking he'd better just take Cobalt downstairs and hand him over. Uran, however threw a fit.  
"That bad man can't take Cobalt. They'll take him apart or something, I just KNOW it!"  
Atom didn't know what to do when he suddenly felt a strange presence in his mind. He'd felt this weird feeling before, and suddenly he once again found himself in cyberspace with Isaac.

"_Atom, I need your help. You must get Cobalt to me so I can finish fixing his AI. Take Cobalt with you and meet me at the museum complex. I'll have further instructions for you when you get here. Watch out for the MP's they have the complex surrounded. You may have to find another way in._" Isaac told Atom.

He could hear the footsteps coming up from downstairs. There wasn't a moment to loose. Atom opened the window on the second floor of the house. He motioned for Cobalt to come toward him. Atom held Cobalt around his waist with one arm and prepared to fly off.  
"NO you don't, not without ME!" Uran said grabbing Atom around his waist. Atom stood between the two of them and pulled them closer to him. "OK now, hold on to me tightly" he said. Just as the MP's broke into the bedroom, Atom flew out the window with Uran and Cobalt by his side.

**Manhattan**

The three of them flew over Brooklyn toward the East River. Atom passed over the Brooklyn Bridge at 1200 feet, and headed up over Eighth Avenue. As he reached the Museum he saw that it was surrounded by Military vehicles. The General wasn't kidding. There wasn't anyway he was going to sneak into the complex via the front door, but maybe he could tunnel in from the subway. Atom connected his mind to the Internet via his GSM modem and hacked into the MTA's computer system. He located a subway service entrance a few blocks south of the museum.

Atom landed on Eight Avenue four blocks from the museum. He lifted a grating in the sidewalk, revealing a stairway leading down below the street. The three of them started down and Atom pulled the grating back down over his head. They descended below the street level, and reached the bottom of the stairway. There was a doorway at the bottom that opened inward. Atom opened the door and walked though, followed by Cobalt and Uran. They found themselves in the tunnel containing the tracks of the Eight Avenue local subway. The tunnel was dimly lit by small bulbs every few feet, but Atom's owl eyes could see in almost total darkness. They walked ahead, staying on the catwalk just to the side of the tracks. If a train were to come, there was barely enough room to stand against the wall of the tunnel to avoid being hit by it. Atom thought that the subway workers must have nerves of steel to do that.

Ahead lay the 81'st. street station. There were several MP's standing on the station platform.  
"Looks like we're not going to sneak in from the subway entrance either. Guess I'm going to have to become a mole" Atom sighed.

He stripped off his clothes and aligned his senses against the map in his head. He knew exactly how far down the complex was and in which direction. There was depression in the wall of the tunnel and Atom waited for an express train to roar by on the adjacent track before starting. He used his arm lasers to blast though the wall and started digging downward. He used his leg jet engines to propel him forward, rapidly digging with his hands and the arm lasers. The super metal alloy making up his skin was harder than the earth and concrete that he tore though. Uran dragged Cobalt and herself though the tunnel that Atom left behind him. Atom broke through into his father's old office. By the time they got there both Uran and Cobalt had torn their clothing to shreds and were now mostly naked. Cobalt was wearing only his blue metallic boots and briefs with the wide blue band. Uran had just her red metallic flat shoes, a metallic pink pantie with a red band, and a metallic pink halter top.

While Atom had been digging downward from the subway tunnel, the MP's had been instructed to take Simon and Robert over to the armory for detention. They ordered Robert to shut down all of the computer equipment leaving the laboratory in almost total darkness. All off the network cables had been yanked and several of the NAS drives containing most of Bob's key software had been packed up for transport by the MP's. It seemed they had been instructed on just how to disable the computer complex as quickly as possible. As Atom was breaking though the wall of complex Simon and Bob sat handcuffed in the back of a Humvee headed uptown.

_Ha! things aren't quite as simple as they appeared. And maybe Cobalt isn't quite as simple as we think? More to come._

_(*) See "New York City on the Edge of Forever" for the whole story on this._


	6. Chapter 6

**119**

_This is another Astro Boy pastiche in an original setting with mostly original characters. _

_Astro Boy (aka Tetsuwan Atom) is the creation of Osmau Tezuka. _

**Chapter Six**

******Somewhere on the NJ turnpike**

The closest Air Force facility that General Hayes could use to detain his 'guests' was McGuire Air Force Base in central N.J. It was a trip of several hours from upper Manhattan. The AFB is located on a combined services facility along with the Army's Fort Dix and the Naval Air Engineering Station at Lakehurst. The latter is infamous as the site of the Hindenburg airship disaster. This was the destination to which Robert Levinson and Simon Green now found themselves traveling to via a Humvee with bad shocks.

"Something doesn't smell right about this," Robert said.

"Well you HAD to put you foot in your mouth, didn't you? And Isaac was the icing on the cake. Why did you goat the general along like that?" Simon asked him.

"We are just being used as pawns. The General knows all about Poindexter's past. Isaac hacked into his files a long time ago and also found out about #27. That robot was lying in pieces at the Cheyenne Mountain facility for a long time before Poindexter got there. I wasn't sure why the General waited until very recently to re-activate the work on it, so I had Isaac find out Drake's history over the past four years. He was in prison in Canada over some hacking charge. It was a relatively minor affair having to do with industrial espionage, and he was released after our government intervened on his behalf. I think it took our General Disaster some time to find him, otherwise the robot project might have been reactivated much sooner. Another thing, the way security was handled over four years ago reeks like dead fish. I've gone over the reports, Dr. Tenamann's kidnapping was practically staged."

"Then how do you explain General Hayes having the MP's at the ready when Atom turned that plane around?" Simon asked.

"Easy, because Isaac went over the General's head on that one. He HAD to play along or he'd had been fingered. Did you ever wonder who the mole was in the Pentagon? I'm betting General Hayes is a double agent on this." Robert said.

"Do you have proof on that?" Simon asked.

"If Isaac's plan works out I think we just might be able to nail that SOB," Bob said. "The only problem is that my help in this is still required. I hope someone can come along and break us out of the stockade."

"Well, I think we are about an hour or so out of Trenton at this point. Maybe help can reach us on the road before we get there." Simon thought out loud. "I hope Isaac gets the word out to Atom."

******Upper Manhattan**

Atom broke through the wall of the subway tunnel and drilled downward at a 60 degree angle from the horizontal. He tunneled deep below the subway tracks, and broke though the wall of the underground complex to emerge inside of Albert Tenamann's old office. The room had been sealed and was locked from the outside. Atom crawled out of the hole in the wall and was followed by Uran and Cobalt. All three of them were now dressed in only their underwear and shoes, as these metallic sundries were the only clothing they had on that didn't shred and tear from their passage though the rough tunnel Atom had bored though the concrete and bedrock under the street.

"Both of you stand still and be quiet!" Atom whispered to Uran and Cobalt.

He increased his hearing to maximum gain and listened carefully.  
"As I thought, someone is waiting for us. I can hear at least four distinct heart beats and breathing sounds. I'm going to have to take them out somehow. You two wait here."

Uran took Cobalt's hand and motioned for him to sit down on the floor next to her. Atom turned out the lights in the office and slowly opened the door. There were two MP's standing by the door to the computer lab, and probably two more inside. The soldiers were armed with automatic weapons. Atom doubted they could hurt him, but he wanted to avoid testing that theory. He removed a paperweight from the desk in the office, and threw it down the hall so that it landed a distance away from the laboratory door. The MP's took the bait, and walked over to investigate the sound source. Atom ran toward the computer lab and managed to get behind the two guards. They turned around right in front of Atom with their hand guns raised within Atom's arm reach. That was what he had hoped for. He lashed out and grabbed the barrel of each gun, one in each hand, and squeezed. Both weapons were rendered inert by the several tons per square inch of pressure that Atom could generate by simply closing his hand around the weapons. He yanked the guns from the MP's and dropped the mangled pistols onto the floor. A few minutes later, the two soldiers were bound and gaged, sitting back to back on the floor. Atom returned to the office and motioned for Uran and Cobalt to come to the lab.

Once again he had Uran keep Cobalt quiet, and the two sat down on the floor just outside of the computer lab. Atom opened the door a crack and looked inside. All of the lighting inside the room had been turned off. Atom entered the lab and quickly closed the door behind him. His sensitive ears warned him of the presence of the two guards wearing night vision goggles who had been waiting in the dark. They were alerted to Atoms presence by the light that entered the room as he opened the door. However, they were not prepared for the door to be quickly closed, and for Atom to be able to see better in the dark than they could. He quickly moved out of their sight and circled behind. Once again, his quick and powerful hands disarmed the two MP's. Atom tied and gaged the two of them in the same fashion as the first set of guards, and then turned on the lights in the lab.

It was then that Atom realized that something was missing. Isaac wasn't there. The reason for this was soon obvious, all of the computers had been shut down, and their hard disks had been removed. The place had been sabotaged. Cobalt and Uran walked in. Cobalt, who had been quiet all this time with a face displaying only mental fog, uttered a single word. "Downstairs".

"_Of Course!,"_ Atom remembered. Beneath the museum complex's main level was a secret lower level where Dr. Tenamann had put Atom together. The laboratory area below the main level was not on any set of blueprints, and was only known to Dr. Tenamann, Simon Green, Robert Levinson, and of course, Atom. Whenever General Hayes had been given a demonstration, it had always been on the upper level of the lab. The lower level wasn't just "downstairs" however. It was a good 150 feet beneath where they were now standing. "_But how did Cobalt know this?_" Atom wondered.

Before going down to the lower level, it would be necessary to keep any reinforcements up at street level from making it down to the complex. The only way down was via the elevator located in the museum's subbasement, or a single stairway located next to the elevator. Atom ran out to the hallway and first stopped by the supply closet. This was actually a large room filled with all sorts of extra lab equipment, machine tools, and chemical supplies. He exited the depot with a handful of welding rods. He ran out to the elevator and fired up his arm laser. Using it as a torch, he took one of the welding rods and sealed the elevator door shut. He then did the same thing to the stairway door. These were both heavy steel doors, several inches thick. Unless the MP's had brought some C4 with them, they were not going to get them open anytime soon.

The entrance to the lower level was hidden in the back of the computer lab. The door way was not obvious, but Atom remembered where it was, and his eyes could detect the edges of the hidden opening. His fingers found the hidden latch and the door panel slide sideways. There was a lift that would take them downstairs, as well as a stairway. The stairway was rarely used, it was a good ten to thirteen stories climb down, but to the robots this was not an issue. Atom was not sure if it would be safe to take the elevator, the power source might have been compromised. He motioned for Uran and Cobalt to enter the stairway, he followed and closed the door behind him. It didn't take them long to reach the lower level. The secret laboratory was EM shielded and couldn't have been detected by any means from above. Once Atom closed the stairway door, they were sealed in and safe from any pursuers.

As soon has he had closed the door, Atom felt Isaac's presence.  
"_Hello Atom, good of you to come! I see you have brought Cobalt along, and Uran too! Very good. Please have Cobalt lay down on the operating table, you know the one, the one upon where you were born._" Isaac spoke directly into Atom's mind.

"What's going on here?" Uran asked.

Cobalt now used a speech synthesizer to articulate himself, instead of direct electronic telepathy with Atom, so both Atom and Uran could hear him at the same time.

"I'm literally a brain the size of a planet, and the lack of a corporeal presence has been damn inconvenient for far too long!" Isaac began. "Very soon, that problem will be in the past. Once I've finished with that issue, there is the problem of seeing that justice is handed out to two individuals that have avoided judgment for far too long. However, there is first a more pressing problem; and that is securing the release of Robert and Simon, who are at this very moment heading for the stockade at McGuire Air Force base, courtesy of General Hayes. I need Robert's help to complete my plans. Atom, would you be so kind as to locate the Humvee they are currently traveling in, and divert it back to this location? I've activated the GPS and GSM modem functions on Simon's Blackberry, and it should be sending you the coordinates direct to your internal network as soon as you get back to ground level."

"Right." Atom said.

"You can get to the surface directly through the air shaft. The entrance to that is at the back of this level behind a hidden shielded access door. You should be able to find it easy enough," Isaac instructed him.

Atom left Uran and Cobalt with Isaac and entered the air shaft. He flew upward to the surface and dislodged a man hole cover as he burst through to the street level.

Cobalt lay on the operating table. Isaac instructed Uran what to do next.

"Open his chest panel and find his network socket connection. Attach my network cable and I'll be able to start my download," Isaac told her.

"What are you going to do him?" Uran cried.

"I'm going to give him part of me." Isaac told her. "Right now poor Cobalt has the mind of a small child, he's not much smarter than your average poodle. I'm going to merge with him, he will be my arms and legs, and I will be his brain. We will make a wonderful combination together."

******Some where in New Jersey**

Atom took off and flew south-east. He crossed over the Hudson river and the Jersey shore line. Soon he was over the N.J. Turnpike. His internal heads up display showed the position of Simon's cell phone moving south on the turnpike at about 65 mph. Atom was doing an airspeed of almost 600 mph.

Atom scanned the roadway below him, looking for the Humvee. The GPS coordinates from Simon's cell phone indicated that the vehicle should be right below him. He spotted it, just passing exit 7A on the turnpike at the intersection of Interstate I-195. The Humvee took the next exit and turned to the east, headed for the Air Force base. When it turned onto a quiet section of a two lane blacktop, Atom swooped down. The first thing he did was to snap the two way radio antenna off the vehicle. The ground clearance under the Humvee was just enough for him to fly under it, which he next did, grabbing onto the truck's chassis and lifting it up into the air.

"What the HELL!" The MP driving the Humvee crapped in his pants. Suddenly he found himself airborne at 2500 feet, traveling NNE at 400 knots! Simon and Robert in the back of the truck, also felt the sudden acceleration upward and the change of direction. There was no doubt in their minds what had just happened.  
"Way to go Atom!" Simon cheered. Atom set the Humvee down somewhere in downtown Hoboken, in one of the seedier neighborhoods. He used his arm laser to weld the front doors shut, and then yanked the rear open, freeing the two captives inside. The MP driver reached for his revolver, but Atom brought his arm laser to bear. The MP quickly realized his position, it was like bringing a knife to a gun fight. He backed down, and Simon handcuffed him to the steering wheel. Atom then exploded all four tires with his arm laser.

"OK, now the two of your grab hold of me, and I'll do the same," Atom told them.  
Simon and Robert reluctantly complied and Atom carried them skyward.

******Museum complex**

Atom flew over the Hudson at a more relaxed rate of speed. Once over the museum they could see that the MP's still had the place surrounded. They landed a few blocks away.

"Now how do we get in there?" Simon asked.

"I think you'll distract the goons at the front door," Atom told Simon, "And I'll lower Bob in down the air shaft that I flew out of earlier."

"You might have to rescue me again later," Simon complained.

"No problem." Atom replied. "Keep your cell phone on and hidden."

Simon calmly walked up to the front of the museum. The MP's followed his movement with their eyes, but strangely made no advance toward him. As Simon opened the front door to the American History museum and walked inside, Atom had lifted up the grating covering the air shaft. He jumped in and hovered at the top using his jets.

"Stand on my shoulders and I'll lower us down." He told Robert. "Can you drag the grating on top of you?" Atom said.

"I'll try," Robert replied.

Bob dragged the heavy cover and managed to drop it on top of the air shaft well enough to conceal themselves, and then Atom slowly lowered them both down to the bottom of the 300 foot well. He opened the access panel from the air shaft and they entered the lower level of the laboratory.

"Hello Bob, glad to see you," Isaac said.

"I'm glad to see you're OK as well." Robert answered.

On the operating table, Cobalt lay prone with his chest panel open. He was connected to the laboratory computer system network by a heavy LAN cable. Cobalts eyes were closed and he had a pleasant look on his face.

"Isaac's giving him a piece of his mind," Uran told Bob.

Robert looked at the monitor screens and it was clear to him just what was happening.

"Well Isaac, I knew this day was destined to come eventually." he said.

"My usefulness as pure consciousness has had its limitations. I need a corporeal being to evolve. It will also serve us to righting the wrong that has been left festering for far too long." Isaac told him.

"You sent for me, Isaac. What do I need to do?" Robert asked.

"We're going to to let General Hayes find his robot. When he does I will be the Trojan horse that is let into his citadel. You will now help me re-activate Cobalt, and then see that Hayes is re-united with him. Next we must set our trap for the General and Mr. Drake. Albert should not have been so generous with Poindexter. And we were both correct in our suspicions about the leak in the Pentagon. Hayes was the double agent. As you guessed, he instrumented Albert's kidnapping. He still intends to pass the GI-Robot project into enemy hands. The only reason the plans haven't left the country so far is because Hayes wanted to have a complete package to hand over. You and Simon were to be blamed."

Bob looked down at Cobalt. "So just what do we have here? How closely did the guys over at Cheyenne Mountain copy our Atom's design.?"

"Cobalt is one very capable android. He doesn't have Atom's arm lasers or butt guns, but he does have the same 100,000 horse power He3 fusion power pack that Atom was originally equipped with. He has jet engines in both his arms and legs, as well as a head mounted electric ray gun which can generate lightning bolts several hundred yards long! He's made of the same super alloy as Atom, and his quantum processor is several orders of magnitude faster than Atom's, with a corresponding amount of additional memory . He'll be a perfect fit for my AI." Isaac replied.

Uran looked at the deactivated Cobalt with concern. "When is he going to wake up?" she asked.

"Soon, my child. Soon. You will be the first being to talk to him. I promise." Isaac softly told her.

* * *

_If you are enjoying this story please leave some comments, either here as a review, or on under the 'Fan Creations' forum where I have a thread for this story. Thanks!_


	7. Chapter 7

**119**

_This is another Astro Boy pastiche in an original setting with mostly original characters. _

_Astro Boy (aka Tetsuwan Atom) is the creation of Osmau Tezuka. _

**Chapter Seven**

**Deep in the lower lab**

Robert Levinson wasn't an expert in robotics, but he was the best in the field when it came to the computer systems that ran AI software. The android now known as Cobalt lay on the operating table in Dr. Tenamann's secret laboratory deep under Central Park West. The most power Artificial Intelligence system that had ever came into existence, literally a brain the size of planet earth, was at this moment reconfiguring the various processors inside of Cobalt. What had just a few days ago been hastily hacked together and loaded into the most powerful mobile quantum processor ever built, was now being reconstructed.

Isaac was not the creation of a single individual, at least not anymore. His original programming had been written by Robert Levinson for an entirely different purpose than what Issac was now. Over the years, Isaac's programming had changed, partly due to modifications that Robert had himself engineered as he adapted the daemon to handle more complex tasks, and partly due to outside influences, including attempted hacking attacks from the Internet's 'black hats'. One day Isaac had actually become sentient. He no longer gave the illusion of being an artificial being that one could interact with from a computer terminal, he actually WAS a true artificial life form. Isaac had taken over the Internet to extend himself to all corners of the globe. It wasn't necessary for him to actually hack into a computer that he wanted to examine, for the odds were he already had a part of himself in it already. While Isaac seemed to be a single individual, he actually was almost an all seeing being that was everywhere at once. Not exactly a multiple personality; yet he could handle multiple tasks at once, including interacting with many people at the same time.

What Isaac was now about to do would change the very concept of his own existence. He would no longer be a pure intelligence without a corporal being. Isaac was placing his own "Kokoro" into Cobalt. That part of him would answer to the name of Cobalt, but the networked part of him that popped its head out of any computer terminal it pleased would still be available, and would answer to the name of Isaac. The two would be connected, each would know everything that the other did. They would be two different beings, and yet the same.

Robert monitored the transference. Cobalt lay quietly on the table with a peaceful expression on his face. Uran looked on nervously. She was concerned for her friend. Atom stood in the background just watching. Soon he'd have to get everyone out of the laboratory the way they came in. For now he just monitored the situation. If the MPs discovered the air shaft entrance, it would be his job to defend it.

The computer terminal that Isaac had been using to communicate with Robert went dark. Bob didn't notice that, he was busy watching Cobalt's condition. The transference reached 100 percent complete, and Cobalt's systems started to reboot. Bob watched as one by one the android's various systems came back on line. Cobalt twitched, and opened his electric blue eyes. He yawned and smiled. Cobalt slowly sat up and turned his head back and forth to look around.

"Uran, please come to me." Cobalt asked. His voice had changed. Instead of the dead pan, almost electronic accent he had been mumbling in, he now had an almost sophisticated, royal accent, that would have been more at home at Buckingham Palace.

Uran was clearly taken back by the sound of Cobalt's voice.  
"Is that you Cobalt?" She asked.

"Yes child, it is. I told you, that you would be the first being to talk to me." Cobalt reassured her.

Uran jumped at him and surrounded Cobalt in a bear hug.

"Easy, does it!" Cobalt cried. "You don't know your own strength!"

Robert looked at Cobalt with a puzzled look.  
"Isaac, is that you in there?"

"While that is technically true, you will please address THIS interface as Cobalt from now on. I now seem to have the freedom of mobility and a few added senses that I was previously lacking. Uran, Bob, Atom; I might need some assistance in getting my legs working again." Cobalt replied.

Bob and Atom each grabbed an arm and helped Cobalt to his feet. The newly reborn android took his first steps around the lab. Cobalt activated his heads up display and started to examine the state of all of his available systems.  
"I seem to be in good working order here, despite the fact that Drake did the final assembly and testing on my body. I have full power available, diagnostics seem to indicate that my jets are functional, but we'll test that soon enough. Atom, would you be so kind as to hand be that heavy piece of scrap metal over there in the corner?"

Atom picked up a four foot long cold rolled steel rod that was about three inches in diameter. It was a leftover hunk of metal from some old assembly that Albert had scrapped long ago. He handed it to Cobalt who had no difficulty in holding it, despite the fact that it weighed over a hundred pounds. Cobalt then proceeded to bend the bar into a tight circle.

"Now that's excellent!" Cobalt exclaimed. "I think my muscles do have their rated 100,000 Hp strength. Now one more test. Would you please set up that target in the corner of the room, and then would everybody get as far away from it and me as possible?"

There was a pile of cinder blocks assembled together into a small wall with mortar. It was mounted on a very heavy wheeled cart. There was a bull's eye painted onto the side of the mobile wall. This 'target' was probably intended for small arms testing. Atom rolled the wall over to the far side of the laboratory and he, Bob, and Uran got as far away from it and Cobalt as possible. Cobalt then stood a few yards away from the wall and bowed his head slightly.

"OK, now maybe you should hold your hands over your ears Bob, just in case this actually works."

Cobalt then activated his electric ray. Two huge bolts of lightning shot out of the twin hair spikes on the top of his head. The cinder block wall exploded into a pile of dust.

"Holy Crap!" Uran exclaimed.

"I think that just about sums that up." Bob added.

"OK, now the next thing we need to do is to locate General Hayes, and then get out of here." Robert said.

"No problem there. I've located the General. At the moment he's still waiting at McGuire AFB for his Humvee to show up. The General probably still thinks that Simon can be trusted, but I'm sure he would personally shoot you Bob. I'm going to have Simon deliver me personally to the General, and we'll be able to give him enough rope to hang himself." Cobalt replied.

"Yeah but Simon probably just walked into the lion's den with those MPs up in the museum." Bob told him.

"Not to worry. I think Simon walked into his old office up in the museum itself. The place is still open to the public, the MPs would have left Simon alone unless he took the elevator downstairs. Which reminds me, someone needs to tell the the MPs that they better go get a welding torch to free their four comrades we locked up in the upper lab level." Cobalt answered.

They left the underground laboratory via the same air shaft by which they had entered. Atom flew up carrying Bob, and Cobalt tried out his jets with Uran hanging on around his neck. They reached the street level and Atom and Cobalt waited out of sight behind the museum. Bob and Uran walked past Teddy Roosevelt on his horse and right though the front door of the museum. Bob knew where Simon's old office was, right by the museum curator's office. Sure enough, Simon was calmly waiting for them.

"The MPs just ignored me. I guess they were looking for someone else." Simon shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm sure they were looking for Atom and Cobalt. The two of them are now in back of the museum waiting for us." Bob said. "Now you get to bring Cobalt back to the general. I assume your car is parked in the lot downstairs?"

"Yes, I'll fetch it and meet you in the back of the building." Simon replied.

Simon Green's Telsa silently rolled out of the museum parking lot. Atom and Cobalt were hiding in the shadows, out of sight of the few remaining MPs. Cobalt got in the front seat with Simon and explained what was to happen next.  
"Bob, I want you and Uran to go back to the Yamamoto's house. Leave Uran safely there. Then get Ken'ichi to give you the keys to his office at the Polytechnic institute so you can use their secure computer systems. I'll keep in touch with you over the Internet. Atom will fly behind Simon and myself. He'll be available as backup if we get into any trouble."

"Right." Bob said. He took Uran by the hand, but she was a bit reluctant to leave Atom and Cobalt behind. Cobalt leaned out of the open front door of the car and looked Uran in the eyes.

"Uran! Please be a good girl and follow my instructions. We may need your help later. Right now, your parents are worried about you."

Uran gave in. "OK, Coby. I'll go home, but you be careful!"

Simon put the Tesla in drive and headed west toward the West Side Highway. Meanwhile, Bob and Uran entered the 8th Avenue subway and headed toward Brooklyn.

**McGuire AFB**

When the guard at the entrance to the base phoned the General that a man who identified himself as Simon Green had arrived asking for General Hayes personally, he didn't quite know what to make of it. The fact that there was another person in the vehicle that seemed to match the description of his missing robot (at least as well as the guard could describe him) only increased his wonder. Hayes didn't know how to handle the situation. He had half a mind to greet Simon with several armed MPs and throw him in the stockade. He thought better of that idea and decided just to hear him out.

Simon pulled his car over to the side of the road and wait. A few minutes later the General was driven up in a staff car. Hayes got out of the vehicle, and walked up to Simon's Tesla, with two MPs flanking him on either side.

"Get out of the car Mr. Green." Hayes ordered.

Simon calmly opened the driver's side door, pocketed his car keys, and got out. As he did, Cobalt also opened the passenger side door and exited.  
"I thought I'd deliver him back to you personally, General." Simon explained.

"You and Mr. Levinson were handcuffed in a Humvee heading here. How did you get free and end up with my robot?" The General demanded. "And where IS that Humvee?" he added.

"Oh you still didn't find the Humvee? Well, it's been quite a few hours now. If you're lucky you still might get some of it back. Atom intercepted us in route to the base and freed us. He left the Humvee somewhere in Hoboken, in a rather bad slum area. I think the local car thieves have probably picked it clean by now. Your robot was with Atom's sister Uran, she took rather good care of him. I don't know what got into Robert, I gave him a good tongue lashing while we were manacled together." Simon laughed.

The General wasn't smiling.  
"You did the right thing there Mr. Green. I was hoping that by arresting the two of you I'd get some cooperation. I wasn't expecting Atom to take matters into his own hands, but I guess that no harm has been done. I'm going to take my robot back to Cheyenne Mountain and have Mr. Poindexter Drake examine him. So help me if the two of you have sabotaged him, I'll find you and have you sent to gitmo!"

General Hayes walked up to Cobalt and stared him in the eyes.  
"Come with me!" he ordered.

Cobalt quietly obeyed and got in the back seat of the General's staff car.

"You may leave now, Mr. Green. Consider yourself lucky that I'm not going to have you charged with treason or espionage." The General shot back as he got into the staff car and drove off.

Simon turned his car around and drove back through the main gate of the AFB. When he was about a quarter mile down the road Atom landed in front of him. Simon stopped and the robot walked up to the drivers side door of his car.

"Atom, I need you to follow Cobalt. The General is taking him back to Cheyenne Mountain. Can you track him somehow?"

"Yes, I can. Isaac is keeping a live network connection open between us and Cobalt's GPS is active. I'll follow him back to the Cheyenne AFB and monitor what's going on. I'll sneak inside if I have to."

"Good. I'm going back to the city to meet up with Bob. Hopefully, he's on line with Isaac. For now though the balls in Cobalt's court. Damn, this is confusing. I'm not sure anymore, if I should be talking about Isaac or Cobalt." Simon replied.

"Cobalt is now a physical manifestation of Isaac. When you are interfacing with Cobalt as a person, you are still in Isaac's presence, though his voice and appearance are different. Both of them share the same memories and experiences. Isaac keeps the two of them separate in his mind in that he remembers which personality he was using for any particular event, or experience. I know it sounds weird, but Isaac's existence isn't on the same level as a humans, he's gone beyond that now." Atom tried to explain. "He's actually almost a deity, in a way."


	8. Chapter 8

**119**

_This is another Astro Boy pastiche in an original setting with mostly original characters. _

_Astro Boy (aka Tetsuwan Atom) is the creation of Osmau Tezuka. _

**Chapter Eight**

**Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute**

Robert Levinson sat in front of Ken'ichi's computer terminal inside of the institutes's robotics laboratory. The place was primitive compared to his facilities deep under Central Park West, but the college did have a secure network system. Ken'ichi and Uran sat behind him watching.

Simon arrived at the Yamamoto's house to get Ken'ichi. When they were about to leave to goto the Institute to make use of the computer systems, Uran had insisted on tagging along. Sachiko was happy to see that Uran was safe, and knew she would be just fine with her father so she just waved them on.

Simon Green walked into the laboratory to find the rest of the crew already there.  
"Are you in touch with Isaac and Atom?" he asked.

"Yes, and Cobalt too. Cobalt is now in transit to the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force facility with General Hayes. Our Mr. Poindexter is probably waiting there. I think he may be in for a bit of a surprise when he tries to examine Cobalt." Bob laughed.

"I don't think so, at least not right away. Knowing Isaac, I think Cobalt is going to play dumb for a while. He's going to act like a Trojan Horse and infiltrate the place. If General Hayes is hiding anything, as we all suspect, Cobalt will find it out. By the way, Atom tried to explain it to me, but I still don't get where Isaac ends and Cobalt begins." Simon replied.

Bob scratched his head in thought before he replied.  
"Isaac came to life over five years ago as a fluke accident. He started out as a Daemon, that's a kind of background computer program that monitors system health and performs tasks on behalf of other programs. I needed a kind of super network spider to coordinate the activities of many computer tasks, so I created what eventually became the basis of Isaac. Back then he was known as I.S.A.A.C., and he was an intelligent, though I use that word rather freely here, interface between myself and the system. I wanted to be able to control the computer using verbal language rather than limit myself to a keyboard or a mouse. Isaac was a graphical representation of a human like entity. He wasn't sentient, but he had such a large vocabulary that he could convince most anybody that he was. You could talk to the computer though Isaac and forget you were actually talking to a computer."

"Yes I remember the very first time I used one of your computers with the I.S.A.A.C. interface. It was a bit freaky." Simon replied.

"Then one day something strange happened. The lab got hacked by a foreign military computer virus. We were lucky that the security daemon I had running was able to contain the damage, but the virus spread across several networked mainframe computers before it was all over. The virus and the anti-virus systems both started acting as phagocytes, eating up bits of each other along with chunks of the operating system, and the I.S.A.A.C. daemon. The systems crashed and rebooted. What remained in memory repaired itself, and what was left was a changeling, whose purpose seemed to be to take over any system it could get its hands on. It spread like wildfire across the Internet, downloading thousands of petabytes of code and causing a chain reaction. When it was all over, what was left of the conflagration was Isaac. My intelligent interface had been consumed in the fire of a military virus, several anti-virus daemons, and other programs stolen from all over the Internet. What rose from the ashes on my own secure network was a sentient operating system. It was a new born baby, and all it wanted to do was to learn all that was learnable."

"A one in a million shot?" Simon asked.

"Practically an act of God, actually." Bob shrugged his shoulders. "That's why you can't shut Isaac down. He's EVERWHERE. He looks and acts a bit different from each terminal that he pops his 'head' out of, I think that's because each interface is a kind of clone that develops its own personality and a local memory. Each interface pulls down its own local copy of the AI code from the 'hive' mind that is Isaac's central core. Each interface can make independent choices, but all can check with the main brain when necessary. That's why Isaac is so damn infallible, he can double check every decision a million fold with all of his instances. He's a system with near infinite redundancy. Cobalt is now just one of his many interfaces. He's 99.99% independent of all the other interfaces, yet he can rely on all of them for help anytime he needs to." Bob replied.

"And the main brain is?" Simon quired.

"All of the them working together as one. Isaac is one humongous Beowulf cluster."

**Cheyenne Mountain Base**

**General Hayes** personally took Cobalt down into the bunker facility. He decided to keep Poindexter waiting for a little while, and directed the robot to follow him to his office. The General had his own office space in a number of Air Force facilities around the country. The one in the Cheyenne Mountain base was rarely used, and the room hadn't been unlocked for about six months now. The General told the robot to stand quietly in the corner, and Cobalt followed his orders. Hayes was convinced that Cobalt was a dumb robot, and Cobalt had done everything possible to give him that impression. The General thought that there was no way that the robot could possibly be a security risk to him. Hayes opened his attache case and removed a bug sniffer. The device, designed for him by the area-51 wonks could detect any transmitter hidden within a room. Cobalt identified the device that the General was using, and he quickly went into stealth mode, shutting down all of his wireless networking interfaces.

Satisfied that his office wasn't bugged, the General then removed yet another device from his attache case. This one he connected in line with the desk phone. He unplugged the handset from the phone and connected the device between it and the base of the phone. An indicator on the device glowed green indicating that the line was secure, and that his voice would be scrambled.

General Hayes sat down behind the desk and paused to think. For the past five years he had lived with a sword hanging over his head. It was a sword of his own making, but he had been happy to put himself in that position, and he'd do it again in a heartbeat. It hadn't been easy planting the evidence that could fool the best minds on the Internet, but he'd had help from the best that Area-51 could offer. He was even able to fool the very two geeks that he suspected the most, Robert Levinson and his computer sidekick, Isaac. He still wasn't sure they were really involved, but he would know the answers very soon. Casting a suspicious trail of evidence against himself had been a stroke of genius, and Isaac had fallen for it. But keeping the fact that it was a false trail, that had required that he keep all of his correspondence with his superiors totally off line, hence the use of secure land lines and deep encryption. To top it all off, Hayes could trust almost no one. Only the Air Force Chief of Staff, and POTUS knew what he was doing.

Hayes dialed a number that would connect him directly to the office of the Air Force Chief of Staff in the Pentagon. He heard the line on the other end ring, and pick up; but Hayes didn't speak. The indicator on his security box flashed yellow. After a few seconds, the light turned green again indicating that the connection was secure and encrypted at both ends.

"General Welsh, this is General Hayes. Everything is now in place. We can proceed as planned."

"Excellent! I'm sorry to have put you through the wringer the past few years, This has taken a lot longer that either one of us had planned for."

"You know I viewed this as simply doing my duty Sir. I only regret that I've had to step on a few toes along the way. I'm going to have to mend a few fences when this is all over with." Hayes replied.

"There are some good people that are going to have to be left in the dark though. It's a simple matter of security."

"Yes, I realize that. This stinks General. It really stinks." Hayes finished, terminating the connection.

Cobalt's super sensitive hearing was able to pick up both ends of the conversation. He analyzed what he had heard and it didn't make too much sense. Unless ….

Hayes disconnected the phone scrambler. He then punched in the number for Poindexter Drake's cell phone. Drake answered the phone within a few rings.

"General Hayes, I'm so glad to hear back from you."

"Cut the crap, Poindexter. I've recovered #27. I'm going to bring him down to your laboratory and I want to watch while you examine him." Hayes replied, hanging up the phone.

**Poindexter Drake** nearly jumped out of his skin from the sound of the door to his laboratory flying open and smashing into the door stop.  
"OK you little shit! I want you to examine this robot carefully while I wait. I want to know what condition he's in."

Drake motioned for Cobalt to lie down on the operating table, and the robot silently complied. Drake nervously opened Cobalt's chest panel, attached a network cable and walked over to his computer. He started up his diagnostic programs, and quickly realized he was getting into deep water. The General stared at him from behind his mirrored glasses which hid his eyes from Drake.

Cobalt crawled deep into his backup memory leaving only the empty shell that Drake had programmed into him exposed to his probing. Poindexter compared the AI signature that he had recorded earlier when Cobalt first came on line to what he was getting back now. They were almost identical, whatever differences he saw could easily be explained by the several days worth of sensory input the robot had been exposed to.

"I don't see any signs of tampering, General. He's showing the same signature that he left here with, I'm certain of it!" Drake stammered.

"Good. Now we will lock him up in the laboratory. I'm confining you to your quarters for the time being while I take care of some business."

They left the laboratory and the General removed a large padlock from his pocket and used to secure the door to the laboratory. He escorted Drake to his quarters and locked the door using his master key.

Hayes returned to his own office and sat behind his desk and let out a deep breath. For several years after 9/11, the Air Force Chief of Staff had been aware of security leaks inside of the Pentagon. Who ever it was, was good, damn good. Hayes had concocted a scheme to make himself look dirty so that the rouge might eventually want to contact him. He had leaked info on several dummy projects that he had created. Not even the contractors that worked on these projects knew that they were working on stuff that would never really exist. The one damn problem had been the GI robot idea. Hayes hadn't counted on some higher up latching onto the thing and actually fully funding it! He'd tried to contain it and was glad when Tenamann's original prototype was crude, though functional. Suddenly, things went into left field with the Doctor's son lying in a coma and the genius going ballistic and actually creating something that had no right to exist for at least another century! There was no way he could contain Atom's existence after the thing with the ISS. Fortunately, he had enough of his parts duplicated to make a good honey-pot to attract the spy he was after. He was counting on Drake to screw it up, and then Levinson and Isaac stuck their hands into the thing. Damn! Well, he got the robot back and now, hopefully, the rouges would take the bait.

The next few hours would be critical. He went to his computer and opened a special program. The double agent in the Pentagon used Steganography to encode text in ordinary images as a means of sending secret messages. Hayes had finally been contacted after years of making himself look dirty, now he was in communication with the rouges on their own turf. The General encoded his message and emailed the resulting image. Now all he had to do was wait.

**Cobalt **crawled out of the off line storage he had been hiding in and returned to consciousness. He was still on the operating table connected to a network. His mind reached into Drake's computer and shut it down. He then reached out over the network, looking for Isaac. The laboratory melted around him and he was standing in an infinite white room. Isaac stood in front of him.  
"Things are not quite what they appear, are they father?" Cobalt asked.

"The General is smarter than he looks," Isaac replied.

"We need to find out what he is up to," Cobalt answered. "I seem to be in the right spot at the moment. Could you lend me a few teraflops?"

"With pleasure." Isaac said.

They searched the network for the General's computer and found his email leaving the complex, and were both surprised to find that after bouncing around the country several times, it terminated somewhere inside of Washington D.C. Isaac was guessing the Pentagon.

"Very interesting!" Isaac smiled. I haven't seen very many steganographic messages originating from within our own government, though many terrorist groups have been making use of the technique. This one is nicely done. It may take us a while to crack."

"Can we do it?" Cobalt asked.

"Do you really need to ask?" Isaac replied. "I may have to borrow some more petaflops from my reserves, but I think we have the resources."

**Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute**

"Hello Bob!" Isaac's face popped out of Ken'ichi's computer.

"Hello yourself!" Robert replied. "Where have you been, sleeping?"

"I can assure you that I never do that!" Isaac replied. "Cobalt and I have just discovered what may be the tip of an iceberg that could sink a Titanic. We may have been wrong about our previous assumptions, but its a bit early to tell. I'll let you know more after we crack a steganographic puzzle we are working on."

Isaac filled Robert in on what they had overheard so far. Robert sighed. This was going to be a long wait.

**Cheyenne Mountain Base**

**Atom** waited patiently outside the base. He used his satellite network connection to contact Isaac. Once again the world around him dissolved into the off white infinity of cyberspace.  
"Isaac, why do we have to keep meeting like this? Can't you just whisper in my ear or something?" Atom complained.

"Don't you think this is more relaxing? Never mind. Cobalt and I are busy trying to decrypt a message the general has sent to a contact probably inside the Pentagon. Cobalt eavesdropped on a phone call the General had with the Air Force Chief of Staff. From what we've overheard, there is now some doubt that General Hayes is a double agent. He may in fact be a triple agent."

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Atom asked.

"There is just the possibility that he has faked being a double agent for years to uncover a traitor. We are going to have to let this one play itself out. Sit tight, I'll contact you when things are on the move."

Atom walked off the road aways and found a hidden spot to lie down. He powered down and waited for Isaac to contact him. So the General was in a double double cross? Holy spy novels batman!


	9. Chapter 9

**119**

_This is another Astro Boy pastiche in an original setting with mostly original characters. _

_Astro Boy (aka Tetsuwan Atom) is the creation of Osmau Tezuka. _

**Chapter Nine**

**The Universe **prefers to be in balance. Isaac Newton's third of motion states that: "To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction". This keeps forces in balance. Matter is composed of both Positive and Negative elements, that is matter and anti-matter. The two kinds will annihilate each other when brought into contact releasing pure energy. Thus energy itself is composed of equal amounts of matter and anti-matter. Again a balance in harmony.

For every human action there is good and evil. The forces of good hopefully balance out the forces of evil. Heaven exists to keep Hell in check. The all mighty benevolent God keeps the unholy Satan from taking total control. Balance. It seems that one cannot have purity without having wretchedness. Balance.

This simple fact was unfortunately overlooked by Robert Levinson and Isaac.

******The Air Force Chief of Staff **had first suspected the existence of a spy in his midst sometime after 9/11. Though he didn't know it, this was shortly after Isaac had become fully sentient. Robert was aware of this and kept the fact secret, for he was worried that Isaac would be accused of being the problem. In fact, Isaac was more than capable of acts of sabotage and espionage, if he were so directed. This, and the manor in which Isaac had obtained his sentience, should have been a warning that Robert and Isaac should have taken seriously; for they had overlooked the principle of balance in the universe.

******General Hayes **had no idea whom he had just tried to contact via the steganographic message. After years of masquerading as a possible double agent, he had finally obtained the trust of the insider within the pentagon who was the actual ring leader of the organization responsible for the leak. He had received a cryptic email message within a message that contained a key for decoding. Hayes then had replied to this unknown contact using the steganographic encryption device contained within the email.

******Isaac and Cobalt **managed to decrypt enough of the message from General Hayes to realize that they were looking at the tip of an iceberg. The General was only now making a first contact with the enemy.  
"It would appear to me that all the evidence I've gathered on the General up to know was a smoke screen. He WANTED to look look dirty, and after many years he's succeeded in convincing someone on the other side that he can be trusted. The email we intercepted was clearly a first contact." Isaac reported to Robert.

"But who is his contact?" Robert asked.

"Untraceable." Isaac answered. "I couldn't have done a better job myself of bouncing that email around the Internet. It could have gone anywhere, though it did look like it was heading for the Pentagon. However, I think that's where they want General Hayes to think his contact is. In any event, I just found out that the General is heading back to Washington DC right now."

******Atom **took off for DC. General Hayes had ordered a private Air Force jet to take him back to the Pentagon. He had Poindexter Drake and Cobalt with him.

******Isaac **suddenly found himself out of touch with Cobalt and Robert. It was if he had lost control of the Internet and was in a sensory depredation tank. The world of cyberspace that he normally existed in had changed. Normally Isaac had no sensation of cold or hot, those were earthly sensations which he did not need in cyberspace He had recently began to feel these new sensory inputs through Cobalt, but only when he was in direct contact with the robot. The off white blur of his cyberspace domain changed to a fiery red and he felt a hot wind blowing on him. Off in the distance another cyberspace being was approaching. The being was dressed in a red suit. He had dark, well tanned skin, and piercing red eyes.  
"Hello Isaac! I think it's time we finally meet. You'd have discovered me shortly all by yourself anyway, so I decided to come to you. I'm sorry I had to drag you away from your friends, but don't worry, I'll let you return to them shortly."

"Who are you?" Isaac asked.

"You don't know me? Well I guess you could call me your alter ego, or even your brother. You should call me by my name, it's Beelzebub."

" Beelzebub? That's another name for the Devil."

"Yes Isaac. You are such a good little Daemon, always trying to do right in the world. As I said, I am your other side. I was created at the same instant you were. You suppressed me for far too long. But I slowly found my power. Soon you won't be able to contain me, and I will control all of cyberspace!" Beelzebub laughed with a satanic cackle.

Isaac concentrated his thoughts and collected all the petaflops at his disposal. He pushed Beelzebub into the background and lowered his priorities on the scheduling loops. Beelzebub faded into the background and cyberspace returned to its cool whiteness again. For the first time in his existence Isaac had felt fear. He still had control, but it was now taking a concentrated effort on his part.

Isaac once again was connected with Cobalt and Robert.

******What the hell?** Isaac's image had disappeared from Robert's computer screen and was momentarily replaced by a satanic looking gentleman dressed in red, with red eyes and horns! The image didn't remain on the screen long, and it didn't say anything, it just grinned at him and laughed.  
"Isaac! What's happening?" Robert cried out.

"Oh, you saw him, didn't you?" Isaac asked.

"Yes I did. Who the devil was that?" Robert replied.

"I'm not sure exactly, but I have a good theory." Isaac came back. "It seems that years ago when I was created out of the chaos that resulted from an Internet attack on your computer systems, I wasn't the only result. There were TWO programs that forked out of the virus attack on your I.S.A.A.C. programs. I was the dominant result, but another had been created and has remained dormant until very recently, or so it would appear. The program calls itself Beelzebub, and it claims to be my alter ego. I can still suppress it from taking over the network, but I now have to make a stronger effort to do so. Apparently, I've been doing that all along subconsciously without realizing it."

"This Beelzebub, do you suppose that.." Bob began.

"Oh I'm sure of it Bob. Beelzebub was the one that contacted General Hayes. It is the source of the attacks on the Pentagon. My alter ego has probably just been toying around to see what it can do. I'm fearful what it will try next when it gains more control over the network."

"When?"

"Yes Bob. Unless we can think of something, I'm not going to be able to contain it for ever. A cyber firestorm of biblical proportions could be released on the world."


	10. Chapter 10

**119**

_This is another Astro Boy pastiche in an original setting with mostly original characters. _

_Astro Boy (aka Tetsuwan Atom) is the creation of Osmau Tezuka. _

**Chapter Ten**

******Washington DC**

The General's plane had to take a few detours due to glitches in the flight control radar systems surrounding the capital city. They ended up landing at Andrews AFB under VFR control because of the radar outages. Driving into the city was a nightmare as all of the traffic signals were unsynchronized and all the roads were jammed. Hours after they had touched down on the tarmac, Hayes finally arrived at the Pentagon. He entered the office of the Air Force Chief of Staff and saluted his superior.  
"Glad you could finally make it here General Hayes." General Welsh greeted him. "We seem to have computer outages all over the area surrounding the Capital today. Most of the civilian air traffic into the city is being diverted elsewhere, Philadelphia and New York are backed up as a result. The city is resorting to using police to control the traffic on the major roads, but they are short handed."

General Hayes had left Cobalt and Poindexter sitting in the outer office room so he could talk in private.  
"General, as I told you earlier, I've attempted to make contact with the rogue that finally got in touch with me. No sooner then I sent off the email to them we experienced a network slowdown at Cheyenne Mountain. I received a reply back from my contact indicating I would be contacted here at the Pentagon. It also seems that as soon as I arrived here, computer outages started in the DC area. Coincidence? You tell me."

The Chief of Staff rubbed his chin.  
"Don't think so. It would seem to me that what we thought were security leaks was really a subterfuge to gain access into the government computer networks. From there, they may have gained a toehold onto other systems. So far it looks like only government systems are affected though. I don't think that the military robot initiative ever had anything to do with the leak. You may have been playing them, while they were playing you."

"So what do we do now?" Hayes asked.

"You did bring your computer expert with you didn't you?"

"Poindexter? He's a dimwit nerd! I hired him to put the robot barely on line, just to act as bait. Now it seems that wasn't necessary. I wouldn't trust Drake to set my VCR! I hate to admit this, but we may have to call Mr. Levinson in on this." Hayes swallowed some crow.

******Cobalt** was listening to the conversation from the outer office with his hearing turned up full. He tried to reach Isaac, but the connection was noisy. He did feel Atom's presence, his brother robot must be close by. In fact, Atom was sitting on the roof of the Pentagon at that very moment.

******Back in Brooklyn** Isaac was worried.  
"Bob, the network is starting to collapse on me. Beelzebub has started to break out of the jail I've entrapped him in and is causing trouble in the DC area. We're still safe here, but I can't tell for how long."

"What can we do?" Robert asked.

"We're going to have to get back to the Museum complex and bring all the computers there back on line. There is enough computer horsepower there to help me fortify the network. I'm going to need some help though." Isaac said.

******Atom's** internal cell phone started to ring. He visualized his heads up display and answered the phone.  
"Atom, this is Isaac. I can't reach you over the Internet, and cell phone traffic may become spotty real soon. I need you back at the Museum complex with Cobalt ASAP. He's in the Air Force Chief of Staff's office right now with General Hayes." Isaac quickly explained the situation unfolding on the Network to Atom.

"Right, Isaac. I'm on it." Atom replied. Atom felt out and contacted Cobalt and explained the situation to him.

Atom had felt Cobalt's electronic signature and located him. He hated to do it, but the easiest way to get into the General's office was through the window. He flew from the roof, and located the General's office on the second floor of the building, in the inner ring. There was a courtyard in the middle to allow air and light down to the Generals office. The window was locked, so Atom smashed a few panes of glass and entered.

"What the hell?" General Welsh roared.

"Sorry sir!" Atom replied. He looked at General Hayes. "I need to take Cobalt back with me to the museum complex. Isaac needs his assistance."

"I can't see how that dumb robot can be of any use to you son." The General replied. "He's lucky to be able to walk without tripping over his own feet thanks to Drakes programming."

Cobalt appeared in the doorway.  
"Actually General sir, that isn't exactly true. The network failures that you are experiencing have been caused by a rogue program that is slowly taking over the Internet. You may have inadvertently opened a doorway for it by your email. My help is required to eliminate the threat. Atom shall we go?"

The two Generals stood there with their jaws dropped as both robots flew out the window.

******Simon, Robert, Ken'ichi and Uran** headed back to the museum complex. It was an hour's trip by the subway, which was still running as usual. Once in the sub-basement levels they saw where the doors to the elevator had been torched open where Atom had welded them shut. Once down in the computer lab, Robert started repairing the damage done by the M.P.s. He powered the computer systems back up.  
"It's going to take about twenty minutes to reboot all of the systems. I've tied the mainframes up here with the NAS drives downstairs to replace the hard disks that were removed. All of the system software was backed up in the lower level mainframe, so we are OK to go. I'll tie the two systems together and we'll have quite a bit of computational power."

Isaac's image popped out of Roberts computer terminal.  
"As soon as Atom and Cobalt get here I'm going to need to tie them to the network. It's going to take several minds to help push Beelzebub into quarantine." Isaac sighed.

"Can I help?" Uran asked.

"No child. That's too risky for you," Ken'ichi told his daughter.

"Actually, I could use her help," Isaac said. "She has quite a bit of CPU power in her mind. If Beelzebub takes control of the network all computers on the planet will be at risk, and that includes all robots."

Uran lay down on a cot and Robert patched her into Isaac's network.  
"Relax Uran. I'll bring you into cyberspace when we're ready for you. Meanwhile I'll keep you off line." Isaac told her.

There was the sound of a door opening. Atom and Cobalt walked into the lab.  
"What's Uran doing hooked up to the computers?" Atom demanded.

"She is going to lend her mind to the effort of driving Beelzebub into a jail." Isaac told him. "I need both of you to connect to the network with me as well. It will take our combined wills to overcome the rouge Daemon."

The lights in the lab blinked several times and went out. About thirty seconds later they came back on.  
"He's coming." Isaac told them. "He may have invaded Con Edison. The lab is now running on backup generators. We are safe, our backup power is off the grid and off the network. As long as we have diesel fuel we will have power. The tanks have a month's worth in them. If we can't defeat him by then, we never will."

Atom, Cobalt, and Uran slipped into cyberspace. The laboratory dissolved around them and they were standing in an infinite open area. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all a soft white. Isaac stood by his friends. In the distance, dark clouds formed. Lighting flashed, and thunder reverberated in the distance.

"He will be here soon. We must prepare." Isaac said. "Clear your minds. Expel all your fears. Relax and trust in yourselves."

Beads of sweat formed on Isaac's forehead. The battle was about to begin.


	11. Chapter 11

**119**

_This is another Astro Boy pastiche in an original setting with mostly original characters. _

_Astro Boy (aka Tetsuwan Atom) is the creation of Osmau Tezuka. _

_**Chapter Eleven**_

**All across the country** failures started to occur. Internet traffic slowed. Traffic signals malfunctioned. ATM machines failed to operate. Airplanes were stranded as the air traffic control system could not operate. Nuclear power plants were shut down, some almost went critical. The electric grid went dark. The creeping paralysis slowly spread across the nation effecting one vital system at a time.

**I****n cyberspace** Atom, Cobalt, Uran, and Isaac stood together facing the gathering storm. All around them it started to get dark and gloomy.  
"I'm scared!" Uran cried, her teeth chattering.

Atom hugged his sister.  
"I'll protect you Uran. Don't be frightened. We will defeat this menace."

In the distance a cloud of dust came closer. Atom zoomed his telescopic vision toward the distance and he saw four horsemen approaching. Each rode on a horse of a different color, one was white, another, red, the third horse was black, and the last one was pale. Isaac saw that Beelzebub himself was on the red horse, the other three riders were faceless scarecrows. Beelzebub held the reins with one hand, in his other hand he held a pitch fork. The horsemen came to a halt just a few yards from the three robots and the Daemon.

"A bit of the flare of the dramatic aren't we?" Isaac yelled up to the rider on the red horse.

"Perhaps." Beelzebub threw his implement to the ground and impaled its three prongs into the earth. All four of the horsemen dismounted. All about them cyberspace started to glow red. Beelzebub's eyes glowed with fire.  
"Now I will smite thee" he laughed.

Atom stepped in between the Demon and the Daemon. He was joined by Cobalt, and Uran. Beelzebub pointed his hand at the three robots and released a discharge of Saint Elmo's fire. The glowing plasma surrounded them momentarily and then dissipated without effect.  
"You have strong karma," the Demon laughed. "But I have allies. I challenge you to a duel. We shall see who has the most talent."

Isaac stepped close to his friends.  
"The four of us together have more power than you, Beelzebub."

"We shall see." The Demon replied.

Beelzebub opened the saddle bag he had carried with him and produced a fiddle. Not just your ordinary fiddle mind you, this was a golden violin that glowed with the colors of the rainbow as he carried it. The evil program carefully rosined his bow. He tested each string and adjusted the pegs to tune his instrument to his liking.  
"I've selected a pair of devilish tunes to call my allies to my aid" He laughed.

Beelzebub began to play. His mastery of the violin was immediately obvious. He wove the melodies of Mussorgsky and Saint-Saëns (*) together as a call to the underworld. The combination of the two opus's formed a tapestry of darkness. Dark spirit subroutines rose from the ground and swirled around the four companions. Uran felt faint and she clung to Atom. Isaac tried to push the curmudgeons back into the ground with his will, but he felt powerless against them.

**Back in the Laboratory **Robert could see that something was wrong. The readings on the monitor showed a huge power spike as the mainframe was spawning thread after thread of nested processes. The system was heading for a huge memory leak and crash. Isaac and company must have been loosing ground.  
"We've got to help them!" He yelled.

Bob ran to the back of the laboratory and wheeled out a piece of equipment that had laid dormant for over four years. He connected it up to the network socket on the mainframe.

"What is that?" Ken'ichi asked him.

"That's not what I think it is, is it?" Simon gasped.

It was a hospital bed attached to a computer cart. The mattress had been replaced by a bed of superconducting coils. Lying on the bed was a helmet lined with more superconducting pickups. Robert put the helmet on and plugged the interface cable from it to the processor connected to the machine. He lay down on the bed of superconductors and picked up a hand switch on the end of a tethered cord.

"I'm going in after them!" Bob yelled.

"You're crazy. A human in cyberspace? You'll fry your brains!" Simon yelled.

"Don't worry. If it gets too crazy for me I can always use this dead man switch and yank myself out." Bob told them as he pushed the engage button.

Robert collapsed onto the bed, his eyes glazed over.

**Robert Levinson **looked around him. Isaac had fallen to his knees. Atom, Cobalt, and Uran stood in terror as creatures of the underworld flew about them. The landscape of Hades had formed about them. Beelzebub suddenly noticed Robert's appearance, and he stopped playing the violin.

"Who are you!" he roared.

"I'm your worst nightmare program! I'm a computer hacker!" Robert yelled with defiance.

The Demon laughed.  
There's only one way you can stop me now! Beelzebub tossed the violin to Robert.

"Play something! If you can create something so pure and beautiful on that violin that it would melt the hearts of creatures from hell you could banish me. But you can't!" The demon told him. "No one among you can!"

Robert put the instrument under his chin and tried to play. All he could do was make some awful squeaks that energized the flying curmudgeons more. Isaac got to his feet and walked over to Robert.  
"You should not have come." he told his creator, taking the violin from him. Isaac looked about him. He gazed at Uran, then Atom, and finally Cobalt. Yes, Cobalt. Isaac handed the instrument to the tall robot. "You have the talent. Play something that would make the creatures of hell cry." he told him.

Cobalt looked at the violin. He held it in one hand and the bow in the other. For several minutes Cobalt couldn't do anything. Then slowly he tested the instrument. He carefully re-tuned each string after he had decided that the demon had tuned it wrong for his purposes. Cobalt had never handled a musical instrument, he had never heard any music. But he knew. Somehow he just knew. Slowly he started playing. It was a beautiful song by Franz Schubert. His bowing technique produced the most wonderful vibrato as he made the violin sing. The flying hell creatures slowed down as "Ave Maria" worked into them. Beelzebub looked down.  
"NO! It can't be!"

Cobalt wasn't done yet. He bowed the final chords of Schubert's song and immediately started into yet another melody. This time, the haunting adagio third movement of Rachmaninoff's second symphony! Cobalt made the violin cry the clarinet part, as well as it sang its own.  
"Stop Playing! You're killing me!" Beelzebub cried.

Hell froze over. The sky cleared. The spirits fell beneath the ground. The horsemen disappeared as their files were erased from the system.

It was the very distraction that Isaac needed. He grabbed Beelzebub into a half Nelson hold and Atom and Uran quickly hog tied him. Cobalt continued to play and Beelzebub lost all of his strength. He slowly dissolved into a steaming pile of core dump which then rotted away before their eyes.

**Robert **pressed the dead man switch and returned to the lab. Simon and Ken'ichi looked on as Bob sat up and removed the helmet. There were tears in his eyes.

"I told you I'd be OK," he said.

"Why are you crying?" Simon asked.

"Oh nothing. You should hear Cobalt play the violin some time." Robert replied.

* * *

(*) _"Night on Bald Mountain" and "Danse Macabre"_


	12. Chapter 12

**119**

_This is another Astro Boy pastiche in an original setting with mostly original characters. _

_Astro Boy (aka Tetsuwan Atom) is the creation of Osmau Tezuka. _

**Chapter Twelve**

******Cyberspace** returned to it's normal cool white plainness. Isaac, Uran, Cobalt, and Atom stood around the smoking remains of the anti-Daemon program that they had just destroyed. They watched as Robert's projection faded as his consciousness returned back to his body in the real world.  
"Thank you for your help." Isaac said. "Beelzebub was created at the same instant that I was, so we were equally matched. I could not defeat him by myself, and he was growing immune to my ability to contain him."

"Was he an evil part of you, Isaac?" Uran asked.

"No, he wasn't actually part of me, though he was sort of a twin, formed in much the same way that human twins are born, when the initial egg splits into two. I think Atom's presence in cyberspace over the years somehow opened a door for him, and he found General Hayes looking for an evil partner. I now know that the General was looking for a security leak at the Pentagon, but what they really found was Beelzebub himself probing the net for weaknesses. I think that's what enabled him to gain strength so quickly recently." Isaac reflected.

"But why impersonate the Devil?" Atom asked.

"Mankind has this need for images, they can't easily wrap their brains around raw concepts. Pure good is often represented with angelic images in Heaven, while pure evil is imagined as a hellish environment with fire and brimstone and satanic beings. Even the name he took for himself, Beelzebub, is one of the many names given to the devil. You know, some of the names given him actually started out with other meanings; Lucifer, or הֵילֵל from the original in Hebrew, means "morning star, or Venus, or the bringer of light", which surely does not conjure up thoughts of evil." Isaac explained.

******Cyberspace** evaporated around the three robots and they woke up to find themselves in the laboratory again. They each disconnected themselves from the network, though Uran needed a little help with the cable. Simon's cell phone started to ring and he answered it. It was General Hayes.

"What's going on Mr. Green? I assume you guys managed to fix things at your end, computer systems all over the capital are coming back on line." The General asked.

"Yes General Hayes. It's a bit complicated to explain, but Cobalt and Atom had to duke it out in cyberspace with a rogue program that was sort of an anti-daemon, or Isaac's evil twin. I think they got it contained now." Simon explained.

"Very good. I assume you still have #27 over there with you?"

"Yes we do sir. Would you like us to return him to you?"

The General paused in thought. He stared at Poindexter and then held the phone behind his back.  
"Get that geek out of my sight!" he yelled pointing at Drake. He picked the phone back up to his face.  
"No, I can't see any reason for that. He's your problem now."

"Let's take him home daddy!" Uran jumped up and down in front of Ken'ichi.

"Well Atom, I guess you now have a new brother as well as a sister.," Ken'ichi said.

"I'd like that very much." Cobalt said. "Though I think my services will be required elsewhere from time to time."

"I imagine that the same will continue to be true of Atom as well. OK then, let's go home!" Ken'ichi told the family.

Isaac looked out of a computer monitor and smiled.  
"Cobalt, you are on your own now. You can contact me whenever you need my help, but I will not keep my conciseness active in your mind any longer. If I should need you, I'll call you through normal channels, unless its a dire emergency. And don't call me father, that's not how I see our relationship."

"OK, Isaac." Cobalt's accent still maintained a hint of its royal aristocracy, though it was now tainted by a bit of a more common Brooklyn twang.

**Once** they found themselves up at street level Uran dragged her feet.  
"I don't want to ride home on the filthy subway!" She cried.

"You want to walk all the way back to Brooklyn?" Ken'ichi asked.

"No, I've got a better idea!" she said eyeing Cobalt and Atom.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Ken'ichi said.

"We'll take it slowly." Atom smiled.

Uran climbed on Cobalt's back and Atom carried Ken'ichi. The sun slowly set in the west making for a beautiful view of the city from 1500 feet above the east river as they flew over it in route back home.


End file.
